The Dark Dragon Slayer
by LoveDragonsForever
Summary: Her name is Ryuko, the Dark Dragon Slayer. Acnologia's Dragon Slayer. After being raised by the fearsome Black Dragon of Apocalypse, she joins Fairy Tail... and ends up meeting the rest of the Dragon Slayers there. Is this all coincidence? Or is it a carefully orchestrated plan to finally kill the most dangerous menace Earthland has ever seen?
1. The Human in my Cave

A/N This is my first Fairy Tail fic! I don't own Fairy Tail, of course... This is still a little undeveloped, its just a random idea I had. So feel free to leave suggestions! I'll probably update this around once a week...

Edit: In this story, none of the stuff about the dragons that is revealed by Zirconis is true. This is due to the fact that this fic was published before that stuff came out. I hope this clears up some of the confusion.

Acnologia, the self-proclaimed "Terror of Humanity" was woken up. Very abruptly. He growled in irritation and lifted his head. He could faintly hear the cries from the human child that Igneel had, for some unknown reason, taken in and decided to raise.

He growled, thinking of that child. Igneel had found it in the woods, and had apparently decided to raise it. He had named it Natsu Dragneel. Acnologia just found it annoying. For the past week or so, Igneel had been teaching it Dragon Slayer magic, and the noise from that... it just traveled so _far! _

Acnologia snorted and tried to get some sleep. He found it to be impossible, and considered going over to the nearby Igneel and telling him to shut the brat up. Or he could just move somewhere else...

Acnologia looked around his cave, sleep forgotten, as he wondered where he could move to. He didn't really have much stuff... so it should be a simple matter. He had tried to move before, though. Unfortunately there appeared to be no caves nearby. So he was left to suffer.

Perhaps he should look farther afield... Acnologia considered that option for a moment then sighed. Anything for peace... he lived out here _because _he didn't like human noise! And yet Igneel had taken this child under his wing, ruining the quiet that Acnologia liked so much.

Acnologia muttered something about "noisy human brats" and managed to fall asleep again. His tail twitched occasionally, but the sleeping black dragon was fairly still.

The next morning, Acnologia leaped out of his cave by the ocean and went off to find somewhere else to live. Igneel could stay there with his "kid" but Acnologia was getting out of there. He did like to sleep after all, and he couldn't just kill the brat because Igneel would probably be angry. And an angry Igneel was not something that Acnologia wanted to face...

After a few days of searching Acnologia found a new cave in the middle of a dense, unpopolated forest. _Ah, peace and quiet, _he thought happily. Unfortunately for him it wouldn't stay peaceful for very long...

_**Ryuko**_

Eight-year old Ryuko opened her eyes, looking around the strange forest. She was a pretty average child, with violet-blue eyes and short black hair that framed her young face. She wasn't especially short, but she wasn't exactly tall.

Where was she? Oh yes.. she'd run away from her village when it had been destroyed by the dark guild... what was the name again?

Ryuko paused where she was, thinking hard. Something with _Grimoire _in it... but she couldn't remember the rest. Ryuko closed her eyes. The pain of losing her village was still with her. It had only happened a few days ago.

Ryuko sighed one last time and got up, kicking the embers of last night's fire. She was grateful now that her father had insisted on teaching her the basics to surviving in the wilderness. She didn't know how to make a bow or any other weapon yet, though. They hadn't gotten to that stage. So far she'd been surviving on whatever edible plants she came across.

Ryuko glanced around the small campsite one more time before heading off into the woods, hoping to find another village soon. She didn't know how much longer she could last out in the wilderness.

About and hour of later Ryuko heard a rush of air overhead. She looked up to see a giant black shape passing over her. It looked like... a dragon. But that had to be impossible, if dragons still lived, they would not be here. Maybe it was some other kind of magical beast?

Ryuko shrugged and continued walking, dismissing the dragon, if that was what it was, from her mind. It was no longer important, she was far more worried about finding shelter. Her fauther had impressed on her that finding shelter was very important... it hadn't rained so far, but she didn't want to be out in the open when it did.

About two hours later she came to a large cave. It was in the direction the dragon-shaped thing had come from. It was quite large and had a sandy floor. There wasn't really anything especially interesting in it, but there was a shallow bowl in one section of the cave. The bowl reminded her vaguely of a nest. A _very _large nest. She walked to the edge of it and looked at the rest of it.

There were black, rough fist-shaped objects about the size of her palm scatted across the bottom of the bowl, with a few on the sides. She picked up one of them and held it in her hand. It was surprisingly light and looked quite strong. She put it back on the ground and once again wondered where she was.

Well, this cave would be good for shelter for the time being. Or so she thought. She sat down with her back against the wall, and tried to get some sleep.

Her rest was interrupted a few hours later when the entrance of the cave was blocked out by something very large and very black. Air rushed throughout the cave, making Ryuko's hair fly back against her face. She sat up, her eyes wide, staring at the source of the wind.

_**Acnologia**_

Acnologia stared at the human child sitting at the edge of his nest. What was a _human _doing here? He had been pretty sure that the forest had been unpopulated... Now he would have to wipe out another community of the annoying insects. Its not that he minded killing them, it was more that it took time, you know? And it was so hard to kill every last one of them... maybe this child was from a village that he had wiped out earlier? He didn't recall hunting here, though... Perhaps something else had destroyed this child's village. Or perhaps it just lived out in the wilderness.

Acnologia considered how to best destroy the potential village. Perhaps an aerial flyby would be best. That way he would destroy the village with the wind from his wings, and simultaneiously kill everyone with his Roar. But first he supposed he should take care of the child. He raised his clawed paw to kill the human when he.. stopped. He didn't know why he stopped; it was just something about the child. Something that compelled him not to kill it.

It blinked up at him, apparently awe-struck. Acnologia supposed that that was only fitting, he was, after all, the Black Dragon of Apocalypse, although he supposed that the child might not have heard of him. Acnologia almost killed it again, but... once again something stopped him. He didn't know why he hesitated to kill the child.

Was it because it was so young? No... that couldn't be it. He'd killed children before. But it was looking at him like that... and he couldn't bring himself to kill it. _Igneel is going to make so fun of me if he finds out I couldn't kill a human, _he thought. _Besides, its just that I don't want bloodstains in my cave. That is the only reason that I won't kill it! _But Acnologia knew that wasn't it.

"Are you... a dragon?" the child asked. It had straight black hair and violet-blue eyes. It looked like it hadn't been alone in the woods for that long. So perhaps it didn't just live out in the forest.

Acnologia didn't answer at first. Why should he speak to insects? Just because he didn't want to kill it didn't mean that he was going to talk to it. But the child kept staring at him with those wide, imploring eyes so Acnologia growled and reluctantly answered "Of course I'm a dragon. What else would I be?" Acnologia walked over to his nest and tried to go to sleep, praying the child would leave.

It didn't.

"I'm Ryuko. What's your name?" she asked. Acnologia wondered why he was thinking of the child as "she". He sighed, having given up trying to decipher the mysteries surrounding her.

"Acnologia," he replied shortly. He closed his eyes and ignored Ryuko, hoping to get some sleep at last.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it! Suggestions are appreciated!


	2. So Many Flies

A/N Here's the next chapter! Yeah! Thanks to all of those who have reviwed, favorited, or followed this story so far!

**Edit: **Thanks to EVA-Saiyajin to reviewing this chapter and pointing out some of the major flaws in it. You are awesome! This chapter has been updated because of your _awesome _review.

_Review Replies_

**Guest: **Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I'm sorry but I'm not really good at making long chaps... I try but they ever seem to come out right... anyway I will try to make them longer!

**Dikilles: **Yes Ryuko will be somewhat dark... she's gonna have the same kind of arrogance that Acnologia has...

**BloodyRose1312: **Thank you, I'm glad you like it! And as I said before updates will probably be weekly. If I'm in the mood, they may happen more frequently though.

**EVA-Saiyajin: **Thanks, I'm glad you like it so far... and yeah I wasn't quite sure what to make Acnologia's personality as, since there's practically no description of it in canon, except that he views humans as inferior.

_**On to the story**_

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Acnologia opened his eye to see Ryuko still there. He growled to himself, wishing the human would just go away. He got up, shaking his head, and walked over to the lip of the cave. He was about to jump out when he heard Ryuko's cheerful voice and mentally groaned.

"Where are you going, Acnologia?" Ryuko asked cheerfully. Acnologia wished that she would at least sleep longer. That way he would have more peace and quiet in the morning.

"To hunt," he replied shortly. He once again crouched and made ready to jump into the sky. Unfortunately, Ryuko had other plans.

"Can I come with you?" Acnologia blinked; he hadn't considered that she would ask that. How would that even work, anyway? He needed his claws and mouth free for hunting, his tail moved around too much, and there was no way he was going to let an insect like a human ride on his back.

"No," he replied curtly. He waited for her next question patiently. Or not so patiently. He wishes that she would just accept that she was not going anywhere with him. Then he could actually leave, instead of standing around talking to this child all day.

"Why not?" she asked. Her face was looking weird. Acnologia briefly wondered if this was what humans called "pouting". He supposed that a human would think she was cute, but she was just being annoying at this point.

"Because," he replied. He saw no point to this conversation. He was not bringing a fly with him, no matter how annoying she was, or how many times she asked him. Unfortunately, she seemed to dense to understand this.

Ryuko frowned, and crossed her arms. She glared at him. "Give me an answer!" she yelled, causing Acnologia to wince and want to cover his ears. He didn't, of course. He had a reputation to uphold, after all.

So he simply replied "I gave you an answer." He tensed his muscles, and sprang into the sky. He was tired of talking to this child. He heard a scream coming from his tail. He looked over his shoulder a bit awkwardly, and saw Ryuko clinging to his tail.

Acnologia growled under his breath. He was really stuck. He didn't really want to kill the child, and the act of flying would probably do that, since it would knock her loose. If he dove towards the ground and landed, Ryuko would probably be knocked loose. So he glided around in circles, hardly moving his tail, while he tried to think of a solution.

Then he snorted and shook his head. What was he thinking? He should just land, get the child off, then leave again. And if she dies... well, really, what did he care?

Acnologia pushed aside the uneasy, doubting feeling in the back of his mind, and dove towards his cave as quickly as he could. He landed, and spun his tail around in front of him, so that way he could see the human.

"Get off," he said coldly. He shook his tail a bit to make his point. The human acted like she didn't hear him. Acnologia snorted, and then shook his tail more vigorously. He finally dislodged the human, and she flew off.

Acnologia turned around and leaped out of his cave, leaving without a second glance. Still, though, he felt a worm of uneasiness in his heart, but he ignored it and continued searching for food.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko got up, rubbing her bruises. "Ow..." she muttered. She stared after the rapidly-disappearing Acnologia and felt a resentment burning in her heart. She quelled it and went out into the forest. She had an idea that she thought might impress him.

A few hours later, she covered up what she was working on, disguuising it, just in case Acnologia happened to come to this spot. She wanted it to be a surprise for him.

After a moment, she got up and started a different project: making a decent bow. She figured that in a few weeks she wouldn't be able to find food from nuts and berries and would have to survive on to hunting. She decided that she wanted to practice now, before she would actually need to hunt for food.

She found a curvy branch with a nice spring to it. She snapped off all the various remaining leaves and little branches, making it free of any protrusions. Then she used her knife to shave off bits of wood until the stick was thicker in the middle and thinner on the ends. She notched the ends, careful not to make the notches too deep.

Then she pulled out a string from her pack that she thought would service as a bowstring. She strung the bow as a test, to see if the string was long enough. After a moment she unstrung it, and placed it with the string on a nearby almost flat rock.

Then she went searching for suitable branches for arrows. She came back after a moment with three straight branches that were thin and were about as half as long as the bow. She used her knife to cut away the bark around the branch, leaving it straight and smooth.

Then she started whittling the arrowhead for that arrow. She made it as sharp as she could, and decided to leave fletching for later, if she could even find any feathers. She repeated the process for the other arrows.

Ryuko picked up her bow and strung it once more. Two of her arrows were stuck in the ground by her foot. The other one was in her hand. She placed the arrow on the single nub that she had left protruding from the bow staff for exactly that purpose.

The nub wasn't very big, but it would serve its purpose, and it would be easier to use the nub to rest the arrow on than using her hand. She gripped the bow with her left hand just under the nub, and drew the arrow and string back to her ear with her right hand.

Her target was a tree trunk that was fairy close. In particular, she was aiming for a spot in the wood where there was a particular pattern. She released the bowstring and fired the arrow at the tree. It completely missed the tree, and Ryuko grimaced, seeing that she would have to practice a lot.

She picked up one of the arrows on the ground and continued the process, determined to learn how to shoot this bow accurately.

_**Acnologia**_

When Acnologia got back, a few hours before dark, he was glad to see that the human wasn't there. Maybe she had left, like he had been hoping she would. He stretched lazily and lay down, thinking about his next target on his quest to ridding Earthland of humanity.

On his way over to this cave he had seen a small village that seemed to be struggling to survive in the wilderness. Acnologia hadn't destroyed it then because he had been interested in looking for a new home, not killing more of those annoying humans.

Acnologia started thinking about how exactly to wipe them out. Perhaps he should land, and use the wind from his wings to raze the village? But that would harm the surrounding countryside, too... After a few more minutes of consideration, he decided that an aerial attack would be best. It would get rid of them in a time-efficient manner and it wouldn't harm the forest that much.

Acnologia sighed and fell asleep dreaming of how he would destroy the village...

A few hours later he opened one eye. Something had woken him, although he wasn't quite sure what it was. He sighed when he saw that the human had come back into his cave and was now sleeping against the wall. But it wasn't that that had awakened him...

Acnologia raised his head and sniffed the air, his eyes gleaming in the darkness of the cave. _Smoke. _It was drifting towards the cave from somewhere... he could smell smoke and lots of it. A forest fire, then?

No... there'd be more if it was a forest fire... and this smoke had a different tang to it than the woody smell of regular, lightning-started fires.

Acnologia got up and quietly walked over to the mouth of the cave. He peered outside at the silent night forest. All seemed well... except for the smoke. His head jerked up as he heard something.

He listened more closely... and realized what it was. Human voices. Not that many, though. Maybe three. One of them was a woman's voice, the second was a male's. The third was a human child. Acnologia mentally groaned. Why couldn't they just leave him alone?

"Are you sure its here?" the man said.

"Yes I'm sure," the woman replied. "Master Hades was very exact in his directions. There should be a cave somewhere along here..."

"Ultear how much farther is it?" asked the child.

The woman, Ultear, chuckled. "Not too far, Meldy. We'll be there soon."

Acnologia sighed and tried to sleep again. He wasn't in the mood for crushing flies at this moment. But their foives seemed to be getting louder... as if they were nearing his cave.

Acnologia's head jerked up as he saw three figures silhouetted in the mouth of the cave. The two adults held torches, that was probably where the smoke that he had smelled earlier was coming from.

"Is this it?" the child asked.

"Yes it is. Now all we have to do is capture the beast and take it back to Master Hades." This was the man, who was taller than the other two. He was standing beside the shorter woman. Acnologia couldn't see any details because what little light there was was behind him.

"Remind me how we're supposed to capture a dragon?" the woman asked, turning to him.

"Well, its sleeping right now. So we sneak up and capture it," the man said.

"Sleeping, you say?" Acnologia snapped. "I _was _sleeping! Now get out before I turn you into paste!"

The girl cowered back from him, and Acnologia smirked at that. The woman took a step forwards, though, as did the man. "Well, it looks like this'll be harder than I though," the man said. "But I will take you back to Master Hades!"

Acnologia said nothing to that, simply moved. He lunged forwards, his massive bulk moving faster than something of his size should have been able to move. His taloned paw lashed out at the woman, intent on removing the head from her shoulders.

"Ice-make: Dahlias!" she shouted. Giant flowers made out of ice appeared to shield herself from Acnologia's attack. It absorbed the brunt of the attack, as Acnologia hadn't put a lot of strength in it, but the flowers still shattered and Ultear had to jump to the side to avoid Acnologia's attack. Acnologia frowned, glancing at his claws. It appeared as if his attack had... slowed down as it came closer to the woman. Why would that be? Did she have some kind of powers over time?

Acnologia glared at the woman angrily, dismissing his thoughts. He would think about that later. Right now he was going to _kill _this human!

The girl tried to sneak up behind Acnologia, eyes blazing with determination to capture the dragon. All she had to do was place a particular object on the head and Acnologia would fall unconscious.

However she felt arms grasping her tightly from behind and she gasped, startled. She tried to throw a punch at the person grabbing her but it didn't connect.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko held onto the pink-haired girl tightly. She wasn't going to let her hurt Acnologia! The girl aimed a punch at her but Ryuko easily dodged it. She released the girl in front of her and aimed her own punch at the girl's head. She just wanted to knock the girl out, not kill her.

However, the girl turned around and blocked the punch with her hand, sliding back a little from the force of the blow. She aimed a kick at Ryuko's chest, and Ryuko dodged out of the way. Ryuko retaliated with a kick of her own.

The girl ducked under Ryuko's kick, and lashed out at Ryuko's leg with her own leg. Ryuko cried out as her balance was disrupted and she fell to the ground. The girl ran over to the fallen Ryuko, drawing a dagger from the folds of her clothing. She might not know any offensive magic yet but she could still kill this brat.

"Meldy!" Ultear shouted, getting Meldy's attention. "Run, we're no match for it!" Meldy hesitated, torn between finishing her opponent off and obeying her foster mother's orders. She chose the latter, racing past the immense dragon and running for all she was worth.

Acnologia snorted, watching them go, thinking that it had taken them long enough. Pesky flies. He considered chasing after them, but decided against it. They would be in the trees by now and he wasn't going to waste time tracking them down in the forest. They weren't worth it.

Acnologia was distracted by the girl once more, however.

Ryuko blinked up at Acnologia's massive frame, scanning him for injuries. She knew that the other humans had come to hurt him. "Are you all right?" she asked, blinking up at him innocently.

Acnologia simply looked at her for a moment before replying. "Yes," he said shortly. Ryuko sighed as he walked back to his nest to go back to sleep. She wished that he would at least talk to her. She had, after all, tried to help him to the best of her abilities in that fight. Yet she doubted that Acnologia had even noticed her efforts.

_She's unusually brave, _Acnologia thought, eyeing Ryuko as he settled down to sleep once more. _Braver than I though a human could be. I would have thought that she would just have been frozen by fear. But no matter, she is still a fly. An unusual fly, but a fly nonetheless._

Acnologia sighed, and closed his eyes, wishing for a peaceful night.

A/N Since I'm essentially completely rewriting this chapter, this took a while to do... chapter 3 will not be out for a bit longer. I will probably update again in the next couple of days, but don't count on it!

Like it? Love it? Review it. Suggestions are appreciated!


	3. Discoveries

A/N Little bit of a time skip chapter, but there will still be a few more with Acnologia and Ryuko together.

**No reviews. :(**

_**On to the story**_

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_**A few months later**_

Acnologia was starting to get used to the human being in his cave. She was like a constant presence, even though they didn't talk much. She was still _there _and she was always _there. _Acnologia had, in fact, started to regard her a bit fondly, sort of like she was his pet.

But not as an equal. A human would never be Acnologia's equal. He did care somewhat for Ryuko, though. He didn't really want her to get hurt. Also he was starting to think of her as rather amusing. She kept doing things that surprised him.

_~~Flashback~~_

_ Acnologia landed slightly outside the cave like he always did, before walking in. He didn't notice anything at first glance, but on a second inspection he saw a statue made out of leaves, branches, and rocks._

_ It was clearly a dragon. The wings, tail, and four legs marked it out to be one. It took a moment for Acnologia to realize that it was supposed to be him. It surprised him that Ryuko had been able to make something that actually looked like him out of objects like sticks and leaves. Oak leaves made up the feathers in his wings, tied together with vines. The eyes were made out of stone. The tail was curled around the legs protectively._

_ All in all it was rather amazing. And Acnologia figured that there was only one person who could have made it. _

_ He had to wonder how Ryuko had managed to get the sculpture into the cave. Perhaps she had dragged it in on some sort of flat rock? But he saw nothing... and now he was facing a similar problem. _

_ Acnologia scowled as he considered how to move it. He didn't think that he could move it without destroying it. He went searching outside and eventually found a flat sheet of stone._

_ He slipped the stone underneath the sculpture with some difficulty, but managed to get it underneath. After that he carefully dragged the stone with the statue on it over to a corner._

_ He spent a long time gazing at it thoughtfully._

_~~End Flashback~~_

Acnologia snorted, glancing at the still-present statue. He then looked over at Ryuko's corner.

Ryuko had quickly found that the small nook made a great place for her. It was far enough back and big enough that Acnologia found that if she wanted to hide from him he wouldn't be able to reach in and get her out.

However it was about ten feet off the ground. After much difficulty, Ryuko had managed to scale the wall and get up there. She spent a lot of her time up there now, doing... something. Acnologia didn't really care what she did, as long as she didn't annoy him.

Acnologia lazily stretched his wings before folding them. Winter's icy grip had settled on the world, and it was snowing again outside. He didn't want to go out in that, and besides, there was nothing that he could really do. There were no humans within easy flying distance to kill, he wasn't hungry, and Ryuko was hiding from him again.

Acnologia sighed, and got ready for another boring day.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko hummed to herself up in her little nook. She had created a makeshift bed for herself out of leaves and grass. Her bow and arrows were lying down in the corner, with the bowstring coiled beside them.

Ryuko stretched wearily, glancing up from what she was doing. She had been making more arrows for the last couple of hours. She put the finished arrows, twelve in total, in the corner with the bow, and put the rest of the sticks in a different pile.

Ryuko sighed and leaned back against the wall. She closed her eyes, her breathing deepening. Soon she fell asleep.

_ Ryuko watched the flying Acnologia, wondering how he could be so graceful up in the sky. She wished she could fly like that, wished she could make herself wings and soar up in the endless expanse forever. _

_ She stood in the shadowed mouth of the cave, watching as Acnologia flew farther and farther away. She closed her eyes, and then... opened her mouth inhaling in. When she opened her eyes she was not surprised to see that she had eaten the shadows. This was a dream, after all._

_ Ryuko then imagined that she had beautiful, flowing wings of her own. Wings that she could fly with forever. And then she felt them, behind her shoulders. Ryuko stretched her wings, giving them a joyous shake, before leaping into the sky, diving and leaping. _

_ She somehow knew how to fly, like it was an instinct. She didn't know how she knew, she just did. There was no need to figure anything out because these wings were as much a part of her as her arms were. It was completely natural that she would be able to use them. _

_ Flying was glorious. She could see the whole world stretched out before her as she swooped upwards, higher and higher. She felt the wind in her face, calling her to go faster. And go faster she did, racing among the clouds, soaring through the air like a bird, occaisonally looking down but just enjoying the experience for the most part. _

_ Then her wings disappeared. Ryuko plummeted towards the ground, faster and faster. She fell... and fell..._

Ryuko sat bolt upright in her bed, gasping a little. She'd been having dreams like this a lot lately. It wasn't just with wings, sometimes it was when she was fighting the girl again, she'd punch her with a fist enshrouded in shadow.

Ryuko closed her eyes, sighing. She wished that she could actually do one of these things, actually fly, or be able to fight with shadow. Yet that was impossible. There were wizards that could make things out of ice, but she was definitely not one of them, she always got really cold in cold weather. If she had any Ice Make talent then she wouldn't be shivering in front of the fire every time it snowed overnight.

She'd heard of other wizards who could fly, though. At her village, people talked about that sort of thing often. The other young people would often wish that they could do one of these various magics, that one of them would show the talent for it and go on to do greater things. Everyone wanted to be able to do one of the powerful magics, one of the ones that everyone had heard about. These usually involved flying.

Wind mages, most of them. Some wanted to be Rune Wizards. Even some Requip users could fly, with one of their armors.

Ryuko slept again, and dreamed of flying once more.

_**One month later**_

Ryuko felt silly for doing this, there was no way that she could actually eat shadows. Yet her last dream had been so vivid... Ryuko closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to take the essence of the shadow of her bow into herself.

Nothing happened. Ryuko mentally chided herself, telling herself that there was no point in even trying to do this because it was impossible. In fact-

Her thought was cut off as she felt a rush of power entering her body through her mouth. She could feel a cool substance entering her mouth as well. It seemed to be the source of the sudden power rush. Her eyes popped open and she gasped in surprise. Her vision was obscured by writhing shadows. She figured that her entire body was covered in these shadows. She lifted her arm to her face to check... and it, too, was covered in shadow.

Ryuko closed her eyes, reveling in the power. She felt _good. _She felt as if she could run forever, lift any weight, fight any enemy. When she opened her eyes again, the shadows were gone.

_Did I just dream it? _She wondered. But no, the power was still there, waiting to be drawn on. She hesitantly touched it, not physically, more like reaching out with a tendril of thought. It was there, feeling like a lake of power, just waiting for her. She hesitantly drew on it clumsily, trying to focus it into a shape in her hand.

She could see the ball forming... and then it was gone as Ryuko's control over her newfound power slipped. She gritted her teeth, and tried again, gripping onto her power as hard as she could, tring to _make _it go into the shape that she wanted it to.

Once again, the ball started to form in her hand, then disappeared. She tried again, with the same result. She suddenly felt exhausted, and she sat down hard, her eyes closing of their own volition. Right before she fell asleep, she reached out to touch the power that she had felt before, to find it gone. Her eyes closed, and she sank into a deep sleep.

_**Grandine**_

Grandine sniffed the air. Her wings ached to fly, and she glanced back at her sleeping child one last time. Wendy was curled up in the corner, looking very cute. Grandine smiled to herself as she watched the sleeping human. She turned back to the entrance to her cave, and leaped into the sky, flying like she was the queen of the air, which she was.

Grandine felt like she had come home every time she flew. She felt as if this was where she really belonged, like she could fly forever. She loved the sky, loved the wind, even loved the storms when they came.

But today the wind smelled... different than she had smelled for a long time. "Another one?" she murmured. The wind told her many things. With the air's help, she could tell where people were, as their smell was carried on the wind. She closed her eyes, sniffing. Acnologia was somewhere far to the east, she dismissed him immediately. There was no way he would _ever _take in a human.

Igneel was somewhere to the west. She could also smell that his own child, the one that he had named Natsu. Not that far away from him Metalicana and Gajeel slumbered peacefully.

Gertol was probably still asleep like he had been for the past hundred years, slumbering peacefully amongst the trees of the grand forests.

To the north she smelled the salty tang of the sea, along with Icyra and her mate, Samulogia. She could smell no dragon slayer with them. Grandine frowned, wondering who had picked up a new dragon slayer. All the rest of the dragons were in the so-called King's Realm, and were in no position to teach a human Dragon Slayer magic.

The only option was... Acnologia. Or if his sister had broken free... Grandine sniffed the air again, more urgently this time. She could smell no hint of Acnologia's sister, thank goodness. She turned back to the east. She could smell no Dragon Slayer magic coming from that direction. Yet she had definitely caught a whiff of it earlier.

Grandine sighed, wishing that she had some answers. A Dark Dragon Slayer would be a very powerful one indeed. Hopefully, if a Dark Dragon Slayer did in fact exist, he or she would not have an inclination to kill every human in Earthland.

_**Elsewhere**_

Shadura opened one red eye, staring out into the confines of her prison. She growled in frustration wishing that she could tear apart the bastards who did this to her. When she got out of here, she would tear them apart one by one, and bathe in their blood!

Shadura roared in the dark prison, hidden deep beneath the bowels of the earth. She roared in fury, wishing that she could kill every last one of those wizards who managed to imprison her. Oh yes, she'd managed to kill a ton of them, but she had stupidly walked into their trap, and been imprisoned here.

She had been here for the last couple hundred years. Every so often she would test the walls of her prison, but they still held firm. They seemed to be weaker than they were, though.

But for now she waited. The time would come... when she would break out and destroy the world! The only one who could possibly stand against her was her brother, and he would be too happy killing humans to even try to fight her.

The Dragon King wouldn't respond until it was too late. Shadura would crush the world, tear it asunder with her claws.

But first she would destroy the wizard guild that had dared to seal her in here. "Fairy Tail..." she hissed in the darkness. "I will destroy you!"

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it! Suggestions are appreciated!


	4. Awakening

A/N I apologize for the lateness. A lack of plot bunnies and school combined made it late... A bit shorter than usual, as well. The next one will probably be longer. No specific reviews to reply to, but thanks for the positive feedback!

**_On to the story_**

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Ryuko blinked awake. She remembered having this particularly vivid dream about eating shadows... she sighed and got up. She was walking over to the corner to grab her bow when she froze. Her eyes widened in shock.

The wall whose shadow she had "eaten" in her dream had cracks spider-webbing across it. They were thin cracks, but they were definitely there. Ryuko walked over to the wall and touched it with her hand, as if to reassure herself that it was real. That had not been there before. Did that mean that her dream was actually reality? Or had something like an earthquake occurred while she slept?

Ryuko frowned, and decided that she would try to draw on the strange power she had in her "dream". If it didn't work, then it was just a dream. If it did... well, that would open a whole new realm of possibilities.

Ryuko turned her gaze inward, trying to find that lake of power she had felt before. After a lot of looking, it was as if a door swung open in her mind. She could "see" an empty basin. It was the place where the lake had been, but this time it was like she was seeing it from high up in the air, almost at the top.

She couldn't see, exactly. It was more like she _knew _what was there. She could sense it somehow that she didn't quite understand. Using those newfound senses, she tentatively explored the basin, looking for that lake of power she had felt before. She sensed that she had a few drops of residual power, like a a couple water droplets that hadn't quite dried up yet. But the feeling of power she had had before... that was gone.

Yet it was enough to make her think that her dream might have been reality. Or it was close to reality. Ryuko sighed, and wondered how she could replenish that power. The basin itself was huge, big enough to hold a _ton _of power. Ryuko could only wonder what that would feel like, to have so much untapped power, just _waiting _there to be used.

She had eaten shadows before... Ryuko's gaze wandered over to the wall whose shadow she had eaten. Then she glanced at the cracks, and decided against it. Apparently eating something's shadow had an averse effect on the thing. If she ate that wall's shadow again the wall would probably collapse. Ryuko absently wondered what would happen if she ate a person's shadow. Would that person die, or what?

Her stomach grumbled loudly, pulling her out of her thoughts, and making up her mind about what to do. Ryuko grabbed her bow and climbed down the rock face outside her nook. She noticed that there were no cracks on the outside, it only showed on the inside. Acnologia was sitting up, looking out the cave mouth. He was definitely blocking the entrance; Ryuko had no way of getting out without disturbing him.

Ryuko wondered what was up. Acnologia wasn't usually like this. The only thing she had seen him do other than occasionally order her to do something was to sleep. Usually he was out of the cave, doing whatever he did. She doubted that he had to hunt that much, so he was clearly doing something else.

Ryuko hesitantly approached the great, black bulk of Acnologia, trying to sneak past him.

_**Acnologia**_

Acnologia blinked, once, as he heard Ryuko approaching him. He had been waiting for her, curious about the small flare of power that he had felt from her. Was his pet learning to do new things? Or had it just been an accident?

Granted, the flare had been small, extremely small, compared to his own power. He had barely even noticed it amongst his own powerful aura. But it had been there, and he was sure he hadn't imagined it. The strange thing was that it had felt a bit like his own aura. His aura didn't feel warm, like the power flare, though. Acnologia's aura was more of a "you are beneath me" kind of aura, even when he was just sleeping, or he wasn't fighting.

That's what he thought, anyway. Of course, he couldn't feel his aura, but humans and even some of the weaker dragons he had talked to had seemed to tremble and wither under his gaze, as if they could feel his power and were afraid of it.

He wondered if the fact that Ryuko seemed to be immune to the effects of his aura had anything to do with power flare he had felt. Acnologia shook his head, dispelling those thoughts.

He looked behind him, his gaze falling directly upon the slender form of Ryuko. Acnologia scanned the human for any signs of damage from the power flare a day ago. She looked completely unharmed. "Come here," he commanded.

Ryuko hesitantly approached Acnologia. She had quickly learned that he tended to be grumpy and preferred to be left alone. He rarely looked at her, and even more rarely spoke to her. Yet she found his presence oddly comforting. Except when he looked at her like this, caught her in that riveting gaze of his. That was the only time when she felt uneasy around him.

Ryuko stopped a few feet in front of him. Acnologia lowered his head to look at her, and Ryuko trembled, slightly. She knew that Acnologia wouldn't hurt her, but when he was staring at her like that... it was hard to rely on reason. Acnologia blinked, and the spell was broken.

Acnologia looked at the human in front of him. He noticed that she was trembling somewhat, caught in the power of his gaze. He felt slightly guilty about that. He knew what the full power of his gaze did to creatures that were less powerful than him.

He stopped looking at her so intently, but he wasn't really looking at _her, _it was more like he was looking _inside _her, at where her magic power would be if she was a wizard.

After a few moments, Acnologia confirmed it. She had somehow managed to start developing powers of her own... and from the lingering smell of power around her (which was very faint but Acnologia could still smell it) she was going to be a Dragon Slayer.

After a few moments thought, Acnologia decided to teach her. It would break the almost perpetual bored state that he had been since the first snow had fell. Besides, it wasn't like she would ever be a threat to him, or even a potential threat to him. She was human, after all.

Acnologia eyed her once more, then opened his mouth slightly, as if to speak. Now this was the difficult part. He had to use some of his power, but not so much that it would hurt her. Acnologia frowned slightly in concentration, and then put a very small amount of power into his breath. He breathed out at Ryuko.

To Ryuko, it looked like he was breathing a vortex of swirling dark shadow at her. Ryuko's eyes widened but she had no time to dodge. The wave of power swept towards her... and sank into her. Ryuko's eyes widened and she cried out in pain.

It was as if her body was being pierced by a thousand stinging needles, as if some foreign substance was invading her. She fell to the ground, screaming and writhing in the agony. She could not think, could not move. Her entire existence was the pain, the searing fire that was consuming her very being.

Then it was over. The pain faded... and she could move again, could think again. Ryuko got up, stood on shaky legs, and leaned against the wall. The pain was gone... but it had been replaced by something else. Power. A feeling of power coursed through her, much stronger than the power she had felt when she had eaten the shadows. Her head spun from the heady sensation.

Ryuko took a deep, steadying breath, and tried to block out the power, to keep her mind from being consumed in the wave. Suddenly, it was as if the door had been closed. The power was simply gone, but she could feel it waiting in the back of her mind, waiting for her to open that door and call on it.

What the heck had he been thinking? He had essentially _attacked _her! It had obviously been a tremendously underpowered attack, but still! And he hadn't even given her any warning! Although, she was still alive, so he probably hadn't been trying to kill her. Had he actually been... injecting... some of his power into her? Was that why she had felt that strange power that was now sealed away? Had he in fact awakened her powers?

Ryuko opened her eyes again, and looked around for Acnologia. The dragon was looking at her with a strange look in his eyes. Was that... concern? But a moment later, his expression was as unreadable as always.

"You should rest," Acnologia said. It was not a suggestion, more of a command. Ryuko merely nodded, and managed to climb up into her little nook and collapse on her makeshift bed before sleep overtook her.

Acnologia closed his eyes, inwardly grateful that he had not in fact used to much power. The point of this was to completely open her magic "channels" and to get her own power replacement going, not to kill her. Or, if he used too much power and she survived, her magical talent would be burned away.

Acnologia sighed. The human body was such a fragile thing. He had been sure he had used the least amount of power in his breath that he could without using no power at all, yet it had still almost been too much for Ryuko's body to handle.

Acnologia leaped out of the cave to hunt quickly. He wanted to be back in the cave when Ryuko came out of her nook.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	5. Departure

A/N First off, please review! Just say anything... anything at all and I will be happy... reviews encourage me to write more!

In any case, if you are wondering why Sting and Rogue are not mentioned, they have already killed their dragons and gone on their way. Also Ryuko's attacks will not be anything like Rogue's so get that thought out of your heads!

No reviews... again. :(

_**On to the story**_

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_**Year 1**_

Ryuko leaped onto the moving boulder, briefly pausing before pushing off of it and dodging the second boulder that came flying at her. The two boulders collided, exploding in a shower of rock chips. Ryuko landed on the grand some distance away, momentarily relaxing her guard.

Acnologia flicked a smaller rock at her, and it caught her in the stomach, hurling her backwards. Ryuko smashed into a tree and was momentarily still. "Never let your guard down," Acnologia said. "If I had truly been trying to kill you you would be dead by now. Just because you have avoided the main attack does not mean that there will not be more attacks."

Ryuko nodded, acknowledging the black dragon's words. She turned towards where his form was half hidden by the trees. He was lying down and looking at her lazily, his eyes half-closed. "I understand, Acnologia," she said after a moment.

"Good," the dragon said. He got up and stretched, looking like a giant, black cat for a moment. "Now show me your flying skills!"

Ryuko nodded, and got to her feet. She was tired, but she didn't let Acnologia see it. He would just work her harder if he saw that she was weak. "Wings of the Dark Dragon!" she cried. Black energy gathered around her shoulders before bursting outwards in the shape of wings. After a few moments of shifting, the energy settled down in the form of wings that looked a bit like Acnologia's.

"Tail of the Dark Dragon!" she shouted. Once again, black energy swirled at her tailbone before shooting outwards, forming a tail with a prong at the end that was similar to Acnologia's. Ryuko had learned that it was nearly impossible to fly without a tail; she was extremely wobbly without one and she had a habit of crashing into trees.

Ryuko tensed her legs, then leaped off the ground, simultaneously flapping her wings and thrusting down with her tail. The effect was that she shot off into the air.

After a moment she stopped, now that she was about level with Acnologia's head. She abruptly dove towards the ground, barely dodging the boulder as it flew over her head. "Can't you at least give me a little warning?!" she snapped angrily.

The only response she got was a smirk, and another rock. She shot upwards... straight into the path of another missile. Ryuko did a sideways roll, desperately trying to keep her wings from being hit. She avoided the boulder, but the roll made her lose control.

Ryuko plummeted towards the ground, screaming, while desperately trying to stop her fall. She managed to extend her wings just before she hit. Ryuko promptly collapsed on the ground, nearly passing out from the effort.

Acnologia sighed and shook his head slowly. She had a long way to go before she would be worthy of being his dragon slayer.

_**Year 2**_

Ryuko stared at her hand, willing it to burst into flames. Well, they weren't exactly flames, more like writhing shadows that covered her hand. _Come on, _she thought, trying to coax her hand to light up with her mind.

"Focus the darkness inside you into your hand," Acnologia said. Ryuko jumped; she had thought that Acnologia was still asleep.

Ryuko glared at her hand and willed all of the darkness inside her to that spot. Her hand slowly turned black, and then shadows rose out of her skin and covered her hand. "I did it!" Ryuko shrieked happily. The lapse in concentration caused the shadows to disappear.

Ryuko scowled at her hand and tried to will the shadows to appear once more, but they didn't. Ryuko kept on trying, but she just couldn't get it do as she wanted...

_**Year 3**_

"Flight of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted. Black wings made out of shadows and a similar tail burst into being on her body. "I did it!" Ryuko said happily. She had managed to combined Wings of the Dark Dragon and Tail of the Dark Dragon into one attack name. Now it wouldn't take so long to summon them up in battle.

"Not bad," Acnologia remarked. "But you still can't use that spell silently. You should work on that." The dragon watched from behind her silently. He was slightly impressed that she had managed to combined the spells, but of course he wouldn't show it.

Ryuko sighed. Acnologia always found a flaw in her work. "Yes, Acnologia," she said wearily. She set to practicing again.

_**Year 4**_

Ryuko closed her eyes and willed. Black wings burst out of her back, and black shadows formed into a lashing tail. Once the shadows settled into the shape of her wings, they solidified and became tangible. She sprang into the air, shooting straight up as fast as she could. She burst through the clouds, and continued to climb. Acnologia kept pace behind her.

Suddenly, her wings and tail disappeared. Ryuko's eyes widened as she abruptly plummeted towards the ground. The breath was torn from her lungs, or she would have screamed and kept on screaming.

She fell back through that cloud layer, and the ground got nearer and nearer. She closed her eyes, waiting for the impact. It came, but Ryuko was not dead.

Ryuko opened her eyes and realized that Acnologia had caught her. She was currently hanging between his front paws. "And _that _is why you always make sure to maintain your wings at high altitudes. Next time I might not be around to catch you."

"Yes, Acnologia," Ryuko said wearily.

_**Year 5**_

Ryuko flew alongside Acnologia. The two of them flew just above the cloud layer, so they wouldn't be spotted. Ryuko glanced at Acnologia and almost smiled. He maintained his gruff exterior, but it was obvious to her that he cared for her somewhat. They had become a lot closer in the years they had been together...

Ryuko was jerked out of her thoughts as Acnologia stopped. Ryuko actually shot ahead a bit before looping back around to rejoin the dragon. "Are we here?" she asked. "And are you finally going to tell me why we are here?"

"Yes, we're here." Acnologia paused for a moment before continuing. "I've told you before that I hate humans as a species, and think that this planet should be cleansed of them, haven't I?"

"Yes..." Ryuko said, not quite sure where he was going with this.

Acnologia turned to look at her, and Ryuko found herself trapped in his glowing white orbs. "I want you to go down there, and see what I mean. Up to now you haven't had any human contact... you should see firsthand what they are like."

Ryuko nodded. "I will." She paused for a moment, looking around briefly. "Will you be up here?"

Acnologia smirked. "I'll return for you in two days' time," he said. "Until then... enjoy your contact with humans."

Ryuko nodded, and then snapped her wings shut, diving towards the ground. She saw the village as she was falling, and adjusted her course so that way she would land outside it. She snapped her wings open about twenty feet above the ground, and landed gently.

Once Ryuko's feet were on the ground, she got rid of her wings and tail. Then she turned and walked in the direction of the village.

After an hour or so of walking she reached the village. She walked in, ignoring the glances she got.

_**Acnologia**_

Acnologia sighed regretfully. He really didn't want to leave Ryuko but... his brother had other plans. Acnologia stared down through the clouds to where Ryuko had gone. "Goodbye... Ryuko..." he whispered.

Then he turned and raised his head. He opened his mouth and spat a stream of darkness into the air. About ten feet away the almost solid stream abruptly vanished. Acnologia closed his jaws. A glowing white portal was hanging in the air where his breath and vanished. Acnologia glanced back one last time before leaping through the portal.

_**Igneel**_

_It's time, _Igneel thought. _Goodbye, Natsu. _Igneel placed the scarf that he had made next to Natsu. After looking at the sleeping boy one last time, he walked out of the cave, leaving Natsu behind and leaped into the air, his red scales flashing in the sun one last time. Then he created his own portal and left.

_**Grandine**_

Grandine looked down at the sleeping Wendy, a tender smile on her face. "I'm sorry... Wendy," she whispered. Grandine gently fitted an armband over Wendy's wrist. It was bright blue, with occasional white, puffy clouds.

Grandine turned and leaped out of the cave in one easy motion. Yet her thoughts were still in Wendy. _Where will the winds take you... my child? _

_**Metalicana**_

Metalicana stood over Gajeel. The early morning sun glinted off his head plates. Metalicana's usual cold eyes were warm and caring as he gazed down at the prone form of his son. "Farewell, Gajeel," he whispered.

Metalicana turned and was gone, having returned to his homeland.

The sun glinted off of the gloves that he had left Gajeel...

_**Icyra **_

Icyra smiled tenderly as she gazed down at her own daughter. _Carry my name proudly... Kaya. _Icyra turned and disappeared into the cold night.

Kaya turned in her sleep, unaware that Icyra had left her. Her hand brushed the pair of flower-shaped hairclips before she went back to sleep...

_**The Dragon King**_

The dragon king watched the returning dragons silently. His form was shrouded in shadow. "Did you all give them the items?" he asked. His voice rang out in the small cave. It was strong and commanding.

"Yes, we did," Icyra said, puffs of cold coming off her body in waves.

"Of course they did," Samulogia said. Being the Water Dragon, he had no wings. Water was rapidly pooling on the ground around him as it dripped off his many fins. "None of us would be so careless as to make such a mistake..."

"Especially not now," Raikage, the Lightning Dragon, suddenly spoke up. "Not when _she _is stirring. Not when this is essential to our survival and the survival of Earthland." The dragon was a bright gold and extremely thin. Despite his look, he could be extremely fast when he wanted to be.

"Where is Acnologia?" Igneel growled. "Did that idiot forget?"

"Of course not, you hot-headed imbecile," Acnologia retorted, stepping out of the darkness. "And yes, I left her the amulet."

Igneel glared at Acnologia, ignoring the fact that the Dragon of Apocalypse was far stronger than him. "You want to fight, you shadowy idiot?" he growled.

Acnologia responded with a growl of his own and they both glared at each other. The temperature grew noticeably hotter, causing Icyra to frown in irritation and increase the amount of cold coming off her scales. The cave also grew darker as a side effect of Acnologia's irritation.

"Guys?" Grandine asked, staring at the bristling dragons nervously. "Now is not the time to fight..." Both of them ignored her.

Suddenly both dragons found that they could not move. The dragon king glared at them and snorted. "Fill them in later, Grandine. In any case, do any of you wish to... err, volunteer for _that _task?"

"No way!" Icyra snapped. "It's far too hot there!"

None of the dragons spoke up after Icyra's outburst. Then the dragon king grinned evilly as a new thought occurred to him. "Who votes for Igneel?" he asked.

Silence reigned for a moment before Icyra raised her head. "I do!" she snapped.

"Anyone else?" the dragon king asked. Silence reigned. Icyra looked annoyed that the fire dragon was not going to be the one elected for this particular task.

"And for Acnologia?" Everyone shouted "I do!" at the same time. The dragon king chuckled to himself. He did so love playing tricks on Acnologia. He unfroze Acnologia and Igneel, and told them what they had to do...

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	6. Fairy Tail

A/N Next chapter is here! Faster update than usual. :) Thank you who reviewed last chapter (although more is always good).

Review Replies

SpringRain: thanks for the feedback! I will try to show Ryuko's thoughts a bit more.

_**On to the story**_

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Ryuko wandered through the town of Magnolia, staring at people's blank faces. She had learned much since Acnologia had left her. She had learned why he abhorred humanity. And she had also come to the realization that while she hated parts of it, there were others that were worth saving.

Ryuko shook her head, distracting herself from those dark thoughts. Ryuko sighed, stretching her muscles. At eighteen years old, she was a strong, young woman. She kept her hair tightly bound in a braid that stretched down to the middle of her back. She wore what was essentially leather armor that she had made out of animal skins.

While she was walking she bumped into a tall man. "Sorry," she mumbled, wanting to avoid a confrontation.

"Hey, you okay?" the guy asked. "It isn't normal to be walking with your head down and your eyes on your feet."

Ryuko looked up, startled. Why would this guy care about her at all? His hair was a pitch black spiky mane that almost reached his knees. Upon closer examination, Ryuko saw that bits of it were dyed blue. He looked oddly familiar, like she had seen him before. Yet she was certain she'd remember if she had.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she told the guy. She paused for a moment, remembering something that Acnologia had said.

_ "I believe Igneel at least is going to send his Dragon Slayer to the guild known as Fairy Tail. The others might as well. If you want to meet them, you should look for Fairy Tail. It is located in the human city Magnolia." _She could almost hear the dragon's voice in her mind as she remembered what he had said.

The guy shrugged and was about to wander off when he turned to her. "Hey, would you happen to know where Fairy Tail is?" he asked. "I appear to have gotten lost..."

"No," she replied curtly, wishing that he would just go away. "I haven't been here for that long anyway. Perhaps you should go find someone to ask about it." She paused for a moment before adding, "I'm looking for it to." As soon as she said it she wished she hadn't, as the guy's face positively lit up.

"Well, since we're both looking for it, how about we go look for it together, then? "

Ryuko scowled. "I really don't think-"

"Wonderful!" the guy said happily. "Lets go then!"

Ryuko glared at him, rather annoyed. "You didn't even tell me your name," she said.

"Oh, sorry!" the man replied. "I'm Kuro!"

"Kuro, eh? I'm Ryuko. Now let's go." _So I can be rid of this annoying man, _she thought.

_**15 minutes later**_

"So this is Fairy Tail, eh?" Ryuko said out loud as she looked at the building. At that moment the door was flung open... and a pink-haired guy came flying out. He landed on the ground and skidded to a stop. He got up, shaking his head to recover from whatever blow sent him outside.

"You'll pay for that, you ice-covered idiot!" he yelled. His eyes were positively on fire with anger.

"Bring it on, you hot-headed bastard!" a voice retorted. Another man with black hair came outside. He was stripped down to his boxers and crouched as if to leap at the other guy.

"I'm all revved up!" the pink-haired guy yelled. They tensed their muscles, as if they were about to spring at each other and start fighting again.

"Stop it!" a red-haired woman yelled, marching outside and banging their heads together. She was wearing a breastplate with a short blue skirt. She glared at the two of them.

"Don't worry, Erza!" the second guy said. "We're best of friends, right Natsu?"

"Aye!" Natsu said. Ryuko stared at the three of them, not quite sure if this was really the kind of guild she wanted to join. If even just these two people regularly got into fights then this was a really weird guild.

The three of them went back inside, completely ignoring Ryuko and Kuro. Kuro happily walked towards the guild entrance. He glanced back when he saw that she wasn't following. "What's the matter?" he asked cheerfully.

"Do you really want to join a guild like... that?" Ryuko asked.

"Sure, why not?" Kuro said cheerfully. "It'll be fun!"

"Yeah..." Ryuko mumbled. She followed Kuro in anyway.

Inside the guild hall, it was a mess. People were fighting. A lot. Spells were being cast all over the place and occasionally a table or chair would ricochet off the walls of the guild hall.

A smiling, white-haired woman came over to them. "Hi!" she said cheerfully. Seeing that Ryuko and Kuro were looking at the carnage she added, "Don't worry, this happens all the time."

Ryuko, at this point, was really regretting deciding that she would join Fairy Tail. She would have gone on her way if it weren't for Kuro...

The tall man stepped forwards confidently. "We're here to join," he stated.

"Really?" the woman said happily. "That's great! Follow me." she led them over to a counter. "I'm Mirajane, by the way. Who are you?"

"I'm Ryuko," Ryuko said unhappily. She wished that Kuro hadn't gone ahead and told the woman that they were there to join. Ryuko glanced at the brawling members and shuddered slightly at the though of being in the guild full time. Then she saw the pink-haired guy that she had seen earlier... and he was literally breathing fire as he was confronting the red-haired woman.

_Could it be... _Ryuko wondered, _that he's Igneel's Dragon Slayer? If another Dragon Slayer is in fact here... that might make joining this guild a good thing to do after all. _Ryuko shook her head, refocusing on the present.

"So where would you like your stamps?" Mirajane asked. Ryuko was shocked that getting into the guild was that easy. It appeared that this guild was quite... different from the other wizard guilds.

"On my neck," Kuro said cheerfully. Mirajane marked him with the Fairy Tail symbol. Kuro sighed and murmured "Finally," before trying to find a table that wasn't being used as a weapon in the brawl.

"Um..." Ryuko said. "I'd like mine on my hand." She gave Mirajane her left hand, and Mirajane stamped it with a black Fairy Tail symbol. Ryuko looked at the symbol on her palm and nodded before letting it hang loose at her side.

Ryuko glanced around the guild hall. However, the fighting made it hard to concentrate on anything but the brawlers. She eyed them and noticed Kuro's attempts to find a table that was out of the way. Just as he had settled down at one, a flying body smashed into the table, splitting it neatly in two. Kuro stared in shock at the prone figure of Elfman. The big man twitched and mumbled "Man..." before falling silent.

"I'll stay over here, thanks," Ryuko mumbled, feeling rather shell-shocked.

Mirajane laughed. "Don't worry, this is normal. If they didn't fight I'd be worried about them." Mirajane paused, then changed the subject. "So what kind of magic do you use?"

Ryuko shrugged then said casually, "I'm not actually sure what it's called... my teacher never told me..." She thought it over for a moment. They were... Dragon Slayers, right? So... "Um... it might be called Dragon Slayer magic?"

Mirajane stared at her in shock. Nearby, the brawlers stopped in shock. Even Natsu and Gray stopped fighting. It was a big surprise to learn that the young woman was in fact a Dragon Slayer who was probably just as or more powerful than Natsu. Ryuko was just as surprised as they were, though for a different reason. She was amazed that anything short of an attack could make them stop fighting.

"Hey, that means you're strong, right?" Natsu exclaimed. "Fight me!"

"Don't just go around asking everyone to fight!" Gray snapped. He glared at the rose-headed idiot, thinking that it was just like him to ask someone who he didn't even know yet to fight him.

"Shut up, you pervy stripper!" Natsu yelled, giving him a glare. An almost red aura of fire formed around him as he glared at the ice mage.

"Ah!" Gray said. "Where did my clothes go?" Gray stared searching and Ryuko wondered how he could not have noticed taking his clothes off.

"C'mon, fight me!" Natsu yelled, turning his attention back to Ryuko.

"You don't even know my name and you're already asking to fight me?" Ryuko snapped.

"Well, um, what is your name?" Natsu asked. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly; he had obviously not even considered asking her name. He had gone with his first impulse which was to fight her as she was strong.

"Its Ryuko. And thank you for asking, finally."

"Well now that I know your name, let's fight!" Natsu said enthusiastically.

"Fine," Ryuko said, scowling. "But we shouldn't do it in here... not unless you want the place to be destroyed."

Natsu grinned and ran out of the guild hall. Ryuko sighed and walked outside after him. Practically everyone in the guild followed, including Makarov and Mirajane. They were curious to see what this new Dragon Slayer could do.

Word quickly spread through Magnolia that there was going to be a duel. By the time that Natsu and Ryuko were ready to fight, a circle of onlookers had already formed.

Ryuko stretched lazily and got into a battle stance. Natsu grinned and leaped towards Ryuko, yelling "Fist of the Fire Dragon!"

Ryuko leaped to the side nimbly, and lashed out with her foot, slamming it into Natsu's side. "Hind Kick of the Dark Dragon!" she cried. The foot was enveloped by swirling dark energy a few seconds before it hit, sending Natsu backwards.

Natsu grinned, leaping to his feet, not at all intimidated. "Let's try this again," he said. He took a deep breath, his cheeks ballooning out. Ryuko watched him curiously, she did not know a Dragon Slayer spell like this as Acnologia had neglected to teach her a few things.

"Roar of the... Fire Dragon!" Natsu shouted. A torrent of fire shot out of his mouth at Ryuko. Ryuko's eyes widened as she saw the attack rushing towards her.

Her form was obscured by the fire and everyone watched breathlessly. When the smoke cleared there was nothing there. "Flight of the Dark Dragon," Ryuko said confidently from above. Black wings extended from her back and she had a similar black tail. "Looking for me?" she asked, hovering in the air above Natsu's head.

Natsu stared at her in shock. He had never considered using Dragon Slayer magic to fly. Ryuko chuckled at his shocked expression. "Here I come!" she shouted.

Ryuko shot up into the air and seemed to hang for a moment at the peak of her climb before racing towards Natsu. "Plunge of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted, before smashing into the ground headfirst.

Dust plumed outwards in a huge explosion. The onlookers coughed and shielded their eyes. The cloud slowly cleared to see Ryuko struggling to climb out of a very deep pit and Natsu twitching a bit at the bottom of it. He was clearly unconscious. Ryuko shook her head and coughed, mumbling "I _really _need to work on that spell."

Once she reached the top of the pit and climbed out she stood at the top for a moment before swaying and falling over... into the pit.

Mirajane yelped in surprise and rushed over with the rest of Fairy Tail to see Ryuko laying draped over Natsu. They both appeared to be peacefully sleeping.

"That last attack must have taken a lot out of her," Erza said. "Come on, let's get them out!"

"Aye!" Happy said enthusiastically. Then he flew down into the pit and tried to carry Ryuko up. "Ugh... so heavy," he mumbled. He got about halfway up the pit before he was dragged back down with his load.

The cat and woman landed on top of Natsu, causing the Dragon Slayer to wake up and look around wildly, wondering why he was under Ryuko. Spotting Happy, he grinned. "Hey, Happy! Get Ryuko off me, would you?"

"She's too heavy!" the cat complained. "I can't lift her!"

Natsu eyed Ryuko, and, after a moment's thought, said, "Are you sure its not just you?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Happy snapped back. "Stop being so mean, Natsu! I'm gonna go eat some fish." Happy glared at Natsu and then leaped into the air.

"Wait, Happy!" Natsu yelled after his flying partner. Natsu looked at the flying blue cat sadly. _He'll come back after eating a few fish, _Natsu decided.

"Poor Natsu," Gray said unsympathetically as he looked down on the flamehead.

"Let's get him out," Erza said. She leaped down into the pit and shortly came back up, carrying Ryuko. Erza dumped Ryuko on the ground and went back down for Natsu.

_**A couple hours later**_

Natsu and Ryuko, now completely rejuvenated, started talking about random things. Natsu, in particular, wanted Ryuko to teach him that spell she had used to fly.

At that moment Kuro walked up and glowered at them. "Would you shut up?" he hissed. "I'm trying to sleep over there!"

"Hey, you okay, Kuro?" Ryuko asked, startled by the dramatic change in behavior.

"Of course I'm okay," Kuro snapped. "My idiot of a brother made me promise to be cheerful until I got into Fairy Tail. Well, I'm in Fairy Tail now, so I don't have to be cheerful anymore!" Kuro glared at Ryuko as if challenging her to say something. After a moment he stalked off.

"Weird guy you're hanging out with," Natsu remarked.

"I am _not _hanging out with him!" Ryuko snapped, glaring at the other Dragon Slayer. "He and I just happened to meet, that's all!"

Natsu shrugged. "Whatever. So... about that spell?"

Ryuko sighed. "Well, the spell I used, Flight of the Dark Dragon is actually a combination of two spells..."

_**A few days later**_

Ryuko ended up getting an apartment in Fairy Hills right after she got back from doing an easy job. Erza had left almost as soon as Ryuko got back. Ryuko was currently looking at the job board. The easy job she had gone on before hadn't given her very much money, despite the fact that she had gone alone instead of with someone else like Mirajane had told her too.

Ryuko noticed that the guild members had quickly gotten over their initial fear of her (since she was Acnologia's daughter), and warmed up to her. Ryuko had quickly come to love Fairy Tail over the few days she had been there.

Kuro had just brooded in a corner most of the time, sending out a dark atmosphere that rarely affected the constant fights that the guild got into.

Ryuko was about to grab a job when she noticed Natsu heading out. She shrugged and grabbed one anyway. She had heard Happy and Natsu complaining that they needed more "food money" so they were probably headed out on a job.

Ryuko looked at the job request in her hand and headed over to Mirajane, giving her the paper. "I'd like to do this one," she said calmly.

"Okay!" Mirajane made some marks on a piece of paper and handed the request back to Ryuko. Ryuko smiled at Mirajane gratefully before heading out of the guild hall.

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	7. Kaya

A/N Since I forgot to mention this in the last chapter... the new (or not so new by this time) stuff about the dragons will mostly not be in here... so I guess this is just a little bit more AU now. I already have stuff planned out for the dragons and I don't want to disrupt those plans

Chopperlover14: I'm still working on Ryuko's roar... She'll figure it out eventually... and I hope I have a good plan for it by then! :)

**On to the story**

Ryuko headed out of the guild, humming cheerfully to herself. The people of the town still gave her odd glances; it wasn't normal for a woman like her to wear a set of leather armor. Other than Erza, no one in the guild that she had seen wore any kind of armor.

Ryuko ignored the looks as always and headed straight for the gates. She managed to keep her happiness at being back in the forest hidden until she was out of sight. Then, she closed her eyes and sniffed the air, letting the soothing environment of the forest relieve the built up tension that she felt whenever she stayed in a city for too long.

Ryuko heard birds twittering nearby. Wind ruffled the leaves of the trees around her, and she could feel its cool embrace on her cheeks. She wanted to stand there forever, listening to the birds and the babble of the nearby creek, but she knew she had to move on.

Ryuko opened her eyes with a sigh and then shouted "Flight of the Dark Dragon!" The customary set of murky wings and the usual tail appeared. Ryuko flexed her wings once before leaping up into the air. Dust swirled around the spot where she had been.

Before long, Ryuko shot above the trees and into the open sky. Ryuko grinned, she always loved to fly. After playing around in the sky for a bit to stretch her wings, Ryuko turned and started flying north.

The job that she had taken had been to clean out a bunch of bandits that had been attacking people on the roads near a small town. As a result of the attacks, the town wasn't getting many travelers coming through, and a lot of the shops depended on travelers for business.

Ryuko estimated that she could be there before nightfall if she pushed herself. She had a tailwind and she could travel much faster when she was flying.

Ryuko glanced down at the forest passing below and sighed. The other thing that she loved about flying was that it was so _peaceful. _It was true that she liked destroying things sometimes, but she still loved the peace of flying.

Ryuko glanced down, watching the green forest pass by below. Her tail whipped through the air, responding to slight changes in the air currents automatically as Ryuko watched the forest pass by below her. Occasionally a small village would appear, a startling contrast when compared to the rest of the forest.

Then Ryuko saw the village she was supposed to go to for the job. Ryuko glanced up at the sun. She had made better time than she had thought she would. Ryuko closed her wings and dove towards the village.

Ryuko landed lightly on the ground and walked up to the gates. Two guards were on top of the parapet. The wall looked new, and so did the gates. It was probably something that was built after the bandit attacks began.

"Halt!" one of the guards commanded. He was the tall one, with brown hair that hung down to his shoulders. "What business do you have in Sykarat?"

Ryuko smirked, having expected this sort of reception. "I am the wizard from Fairy Tail here to take care of your bandit problem."

"Show your mark then!" the guard commanded. Ryuko rolled her eyes but raised her hand, clearly displaying the black symbol on her palm. The guard nodded and the gates opened. Ryuko walked inside, but paused before continuing into the town.

"Can you tell me where I can find the mayor of this town?" she asked.

"Yes, his mansion is near the edge of town, up that way." The guard waved his hand in a vague direction. "Keep going that way and you can't miss it."

_**At the mansion**_

"So you're saying that these bandits have a powerful mage as their leader?" Ryuko asked the mayor. The mayor looked quite old. He was nearly bald, with just a few strands of hair remaining on his head. His eyes were closed wearily.

The two of them were sitting across from each other. There were no guards in the room, as the mayor had asked them to leave. "Yes, that is what I'm saying," the mayor said softly.

"Do you have any idea what kind of powers he or she has?" Ryuko asked, starting to feel slightly worried. There could be many definitions to "powerful" and it was possible that the enemy wizard could very well beat her.

"No one knows, as no one has seen the leader and come out alive. The one person that we saw seemed to be frozen solid. His expression was horrible, like he had experienced great pain before he died..." the old man trailed off. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Also... there is good reason to believe that their leader is not the only wizard among them. He or she is simply the most powerful. In any case, you should get some rest. You can go out and look for them tomorrow."

Ryuko nodded grimly. "Very well."

_**Morning**_

Ryuko walked aimlessly through the forest. She figured that if she looked long enough then she would find the bandits. Her eyes narrowed as she thought she caught a faint echo of footsteps behind her. She stopped and whirled around. There was nobody there. Ryuko shrugged and continued walking. She figured she was tense enough that she was just jumping at shadows.

Her hand went up to her chest involuntarily as she fingered the pendant that Acnologia had given her. She sighed and let go, wondering what had happened to her mentor and father once again. She had simply never heard from him again after he took her to the village.

Ryuko was rudely thrust out of her thoughts by the sound of a sword swishing through the air. Her reflexes kicked in and she leaped to the side. She spun, looking for her attacker... and saw her.

Her opponent was dressed in a black dress, with leaping panthers embroidered on it. Ryuko stared at the dress for a moment, confused as to why anyone would want to wear a dress while fighting. Her opponent's hair was bound into a knot at the back of her head, which was held up by a gleaming silver stick.

"Fist of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted, leaping towards her oddly dressed opponent, her right hand clenched into a fist and covered with dark, murky energy.

The unknown woman raised her left arm to block the blow. Ryuko's hand slammed into a flat blade that appeared to be strapped to her arm. The blade was pitch-black, blending with her dress's color perfectly. Ryuko's eyes widened in shock. Ryuko could tell that she wouldn't have time to dodge the blow that was going to come from the woman. She would have to take it head-on and hope that her armor would be able to stop most of it.

The blade held in the woman's other hand was about to slam into Ryuko's back while she was unprotected, but clashed into an ice shield.

"Wait, Myra," a smooth voice said. It was cold, appearing to be devoid of emotion. Ryuko took the opportunity to leap backwards, away from her enemy. Ryuko landed on the ground in a battle stance, her eyes quickly scanning the scene in front of her.

Another woman had stepped out of the forest. Dark black hair fell down to her waist. She wore a short skirt, rather like Erza's. She also wore leather armor that protected her chest and not much else. Her arms were almost completely bare. Two gleaming hair clips in the shape of a dragon's head kept her hair away from her eyes. They looked as if they were made of ice. Her eyes were a light blue color, like the color of giant sheets of ice. A wave of cold seemed to emanate from her body.

"Why'd you stop me from killing her?" Myra, the woman that Ryuko had been fighting, asked. She sounded irritated. "She is just like the rest of them, even if she _is _an outsider! She is in our way, so she must be eliminated!"

The newcomer raised a slender, dark eyebrow. "She's obviously not like the rest of them. And, besides, she doesn't even know what's going on." The woman sighed, and turned to Ryuko. "Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you."

Myra glared at the other woman. "You know nothing about her!" she snapped. "Yet all of a sudden you're befriending her?!"

"You're wrong," the newcomer said. The air chilled noticeably. "I know enough about her to know that I'm not going to let you kill her."

"Just because she's like you gives you no reason to trust her, Kaya!" Myra said, glaring angrily at the woman. "She's just another one of Sachiko's minions!"

"Sachiko?" Ryuko interjected. "Isn't that the name of the mayor of Sykarat?"

Kaya sighed. "So you really don't know what's going on, then."

"Well obviously there's something more to this than a simple bandit cleanup," Ryuko stated. "So just what is going on? And what did you mean, that Kaya is "like me"?"

Kaya sighed. "And if we don't tell you?"

Ryuko shrugged. "Then I am left to believe that you are but simple bandits. In that case I will immediately attack you."

Myra glared at Kaya. "You aren't really thinking of dragging her into this, are you?" she said;

"At this point... I fear we have no choice," Kaya said simply.

Myra snorted and walked off, her back straight.

Kaya sighed, looking at the retreating Myra. Then she shook her head and said, "Come, sit down. This will be a long tale, I fear."

Ryuko nodded and sat down on a nearby log. She remained alert for danger, however. She did not trust these people but... if there was something bigger here than a bandit cleanup, then she wanted to know about it. Once she did, she would decide what to do.

"It was a few months ago..." Kaya began.

A few months ago, Kaya had been out in the forest as usual. She was just leaving the stream after a refreshing swim and she heard voices. So, she hid behind a tree and waited. Two people came into view. One of them was a tall stranger, with a small, dark goatee and flowing black robes. The other one was obviously the mayor of the local town of Sykarat.

The taller one eyed the trembling man before him. "I will give you one last chance," he said. "Tell me where they are and I may yet spare your life."

"No!" the mayor cried. "I refuse!"

"Die, then," the other man said, smirking evilly. He pulled a knife out of his robes and stabbed the mayor with it. Kaya watched, her hands over her mouth, as the mayor crumpled to the ground. The other man pulled the knife out of the corpse and cleaned it before sheathing it.

He looked around briefly, his eyes narrowing. "Is someone there?" he called out. Kaya shrank against the tree trunk, praying that the murderer wouldn't notice her. The man shrugged, then muttered something. His features reorganized themselves into that of the mayor. He smirked, then tossed the corpse into the river.

Kaya closed her eyes, her cold persona shattered. She took a deep breath to compose herself. The man turned and walked away into the forest. Kaya wanted to go after him, wanted to kill him for what he had done. Killing another person when not in combat was unforgivable.

However, Kaya waited, because she was afraid of him. She had never encountered a human like him. The cold look in his eyes as he stared at the dead body terrified her. Kaya knew her fear was unreasonable, knew that she could probably beat him... but her every instinct told her to stay away. So she stayed there, trembling slightly for a long time...

"Do you know what they are looking for?" Ryuko asked.

Kaya hesitated, then nodded. "He is looking for the fabled Gryphon bones," she said.

"Gryphon bones? But that's just a legend!" Ryuko protested.

"Yes but he is just insane enough to believe that it is real. According to legend, they are near here. If they are ground up and put in water, and then drunk, it is said that they will grant the drinker eternal life."

"Eternal life..." Ryuko whispered. "So he killed the real mayor for this? Do you know who he really is?"

"No," Kaya said somberly. "No one does. He obviously uses magic, so I suppose its possible that he's part of a dark guild."

"I see..." Ryuko said. "Well, at this point, he trusts me. Is there anything I can do to help you? Fooling the people like that... that's just wrong."

Kaya looked at Ryuko sharply, noting that she didn't say anything about the killing. Perhaps it came of being the Dark Dragon's daughter, whoever that Dark Dragon might be. "For now, I don't think so. Try to make sure that he trusts you... and wait. If you can, try and find out about his powers. We need as much information as we can get."

Ryuko nodded. "Very well then... goodbye." Ryuko turned and walked towards the town.

_**Magnolia**_

Kuro leaned against a wall in a deserted alleyway, absentmindedly fingering a small golden disc. He sighed. Might as well...

Kuro raised the disc to his mouth and turned away so that even if someone did come into the alleyway he or she wouldn't see the disc. "Hey, you," he said into the disc.

_"What is it?" _the disc said tinnily.

"Well, you told me to report, right? So here I am..." Kuro smirked, knowing that this was going to annoy the person on the other end.

_"If you have nothing to say, then don't say anything at all," _the disc said.

Kuro chuckled. "Naw... nothing much to say. Just wanted to tell you that Ryuko and Natsu have left on different missions. Oh yeah, and there's nothing life-threatening going on..."

_"Why thank you. Now can you shut up and let me sleep in peace?" _

"I could..." Kuro said thoughtfully. "Sure, whatever." Kuro slid the disc into his pocket and started the long walk back to the Fairy Tail guild house.

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	8. Fierce Guardian of the Gryphon

A/N I want to thank all of you who reviewed last chapter! Thanks guys, your comments mean a lot! :)

_**On to the story**_

Kaya stared after Ryuko's retreating back, sighing. She turned to her left and stared straight into the forest. "Myra, you can come out now. I know you're there."

Myra walked out of the forest, scowling. "How did you know?" she asked.

Kaya smiled slightly. "Because its exactly the thing you would do. Even though I can't see through your Camouflage Magic, I still knew that you would be there..."

Myra sighed. "So, them, you're really going through with it?"

"What choice do I have?" Kaya asked. "I can't let someone like that continue to exist..." her hand moved up to her hair and lightly brushed one of the ice cold hair clips. "It would go against everything that my mother taught me..."

"You're still looking for her, aren't you?" Myra asked.

"Of course," Kaya replied. "How could I not? I do not know why she left me... but I do know that if I can make myself stronger, if I can prove that I am worthy of being her daughter... then perhaps she will return to me."

Myra watched her friend, smiling slightly. Even though Kaya tried to keep up her ice-cold persona, occasionally Myra could see cracks in it. "Well, in any case, I think it is about time that we started to formulate a plan of attack..."

"Yes, it is," Kaya said. "I have an idea but we will need Ryuko-"

"No!" Myra protested vehemently. "We can't trust her! For all we know, she could be going to betray us right now!"

"Myra... she won't. She's a Dragon Slayer. Despite our differences... we all value honor. To go back on her word like that... she wouldn't do that!"

Myra snorted. "Yeah, sure..." she muttered.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko walked back into the mayor's room. "No luck," she said calmly. "They appear to be lying low today."

The mayor stared at her. "What?!" he shouted. "You're useless! You're supposed to DO something about them!" He appeared to be quite angry.

Ryuko stared at him. Why was he angry? Just because she had "failed" this time didn't mean that she was going to fail every time... she would catch them eventually, right? "I did the best I could, but I couldn't find the lair and they didn't attack me," she said calmly.

The mayor glared at her. "Guards!" he yelled. "Arrest her!"

Ryuko glared at him. "You hired me for this!" she protested. "I've been doing my best! You have no reason to-" She felt a sharp pain on the back of her head and she descended into darkness...

_**Mayor and company**_

"Boss, what happened?" one of the guards that had dragged Ryuko away asked. He was tall, with a small beard that he liked to stroke. "I thought she was supposed to take care of them for us?"

"My... opposition found her and informed her," the mayor replied coolly. "It is most likely that she has been turned against us. That is too big a risk to take, so she has been locked up."

The guard blinked. "Wait, is she a wizard?"

"What do you _think, _idiot?" the mayor snapped. "Of course she is!"

The guard's eyes widened. _Oh crap! _he thought. "Um..." He looked up to see his boss's death glare.

"You didn't put the magic-dampening chains on her, did you," the mayor said. It was not a question and his tone was very, very angry.

"Um... well..." the guard muttered.

"You IDIOT!" the mayor yelled. "Go down there right now and make sure to put the magic-dampening chains on her!"

"Yes, Boss!" the guard said, almost running out of the room. He was eager to be away from his leader's anger.

When the guard finally got down to the dungeon... the room where Ryuko had been put was empty. The chains were on the ground in a neat pile. There was a note that had been placed on top.

_ Next time remember to seal my magic power... idiot._

_~R_

The guard gulped nervously, looking around the empty room. He was afraid to go back and face his master's wrath. Unfortunately for him, his boss was not a patient man. If the guard didn't return in a timely manner then the "mayor" would definitely come looking for him...

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko walked into the forest, rubbing her wrists. After easily getting rid of her chains with her magic, she had left the city using Flight of the Dark Dragon. Now that she was free, she had no idea what to do. The very fact that the mayor had turned on her was, perhaps, proof that he was not the legitimate leader.

The questions was, however, if it was because of what Kaya said to Ryuko, or if it was for some other thing that Ryuko didn't know about. If it was because of what Kaya said, then what Kaya said was probably true, since the mayor wouldn't want anyone to know.

Ryuko sighed. First off, she had to find Kaya and inform her—wait why was she trusting Kaya? For all she knew, Kaya couldn't be trusted either. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to wait and see the outcome of the fight. But what if Kaya's story was true? Then she had to help...

_Ugh, this is going nowhere, _Ryuko thought. Ryuko narrowed her eyes as a new thought came to her. She could try to find the gryphon bones on her own, and guard them from both parties. It was possible that Kaya was after the gryphon bones as well. Ryuko sighed irritably. Now what would be the logical place to put gryphon bones?

No... that wasn't right. She shouldn't be searching for where someone would hide the bones... but rather where a gryphon would choose to die. The problem was that Ryuko didn't know much about gryphons, and the little she did she had mostly forgotten.

Basically, she knew what they looked like, and that they ate meat. Everything else was just a blank... Well, Acnologia looked a bit like a gryphon, right? He had wings with feather-like things on them, just like a gryphon. He lived in a cave...

Ryuko grinned, now that she knew where to start. She was going to start looking in all the caves she could find! She strode off into the forest happy to finally have a plan.

_**In a far away cave**_

"Go... I'm dying," the gryphon said. Once burnished gold feathers were now a pale yellow. The great creature lay collapsed on the ground. He breathed in great gasps, the air whistling through his beak. "There is no point in you... staying..."

"There is every point!" the small cat standing by the gryphon's head said. "You know that the nearby humans are searching for your bones! As in they are coming to kill you!"

"I will... already... be dead," the gryphon said in a soft whisper. "There is... no point... in... guarding... me..."

"Well, even if you do die before they come, I'm not letting them have your bones!" the cat said irritably, one ear flicking. He glared at the prone form of the gryphon. "In any case-" he was cut off by a sound outside the cave.

The gryphon opened his mouth to speak, but the small cat raised a paw. "Wait," he whispered. "I think someone has found us..."

Ryuko strode down the tunnel, sighing. She had actually fallen into it...

_~Flashback~_

_ Ryuko walked along the forest floor, humming to herself. She couldn't find any cave and she was having trouble realizing why. The cave that Acnologia had raised her in had been in the middle of the forest._

_ Ryuko sat down on a rock for a brief rest before continuing on her trip. The rock shuddered... and collapsed, carrying Ryuko with it. She cried out, too startled to even think of using Flight of the Dark Dragon to escape. She landed on the ground, the reflexes that Acnologia had pounded into her saving her from an injury._

_ Ryuko looked around the tunnel and realized that it looked somewhat like a cave. _Maybe the gryphon bones are here, _she thought. Ryuko shrugged. _Eh, whatever. _She headed off down the passageway._

_~End Flashback~_

Ryuko was starting to get irritated. This tunnel was going nowhere... and it was quite dark. Even she, with her magic-enhanced senses, was having trouble seeing in the dim lighting. At least it wasn't direct sunlight, which always seemed to drain her energy.

Ryuko saw some light up ahead and ran towards it eagerly. She burst out into a large cave, but that was all she saw before wincing away from the light, instinctively closing her eyes. She blinked rapidly for a moment, letting her eyes adjust, before she opened them again.

She was at the entrance to a large, underground cave. Glowing stones in the walls lit the cave. The walls were made out of some kind of smooth, gray rock. The ceiling went up very high, and Ryuko realized that she had been going steadily deeper into the ground for the past hour or so that she had been in the tunnel.

In one corner of the cave, there was a great heap. Ryuko was unable to tell what it was because that corner was very dark compared to the rest of the cave. She started walking towards it, curious to find out what it was.

Before she had moved even ten steps, a small cat ran out of the shadows. It looked rather like Happy, the blue feline that was always with Natsu. However, it was black, and moved in a more flowing manner, more like the regular cats that couldn't talk or walk on their hind legs. It was wearing a cloak that was fastened at its throat.

"You aren't going to hurt him!" the cat snarled. Within moments the cat grew in size from a small black feline to the size of a human. The cat hissed and leaped towards Ryuko, claws extended.

Ryuko automatically dodged, leaping to the side and rolling to her feet. She didn't know what was going on exactly, or what this strange creature was, but it was attacking and that was enough for her. She ran forwards, her fist enveloped in dark shadows. "Fist of the Dark Dragon!" she shouted, aiming a punch towards the creature's chest.

The cat dodged agilely, leaping away. White wings shot out of his back, and he shot up into the air.

"Oh so that's how you want to play it, huh?" Ryuko muttered. "Flight of the Dark Dragon!" she shouted. She flexed her new wings before leaping into the air after the strange feline. She tried to get higher than him, so she could use more of her aerial attacks, but the cat kept pace with her easily.

Her enemy suddenly leaped at her, clawing at her and hissing. Ryuko was unable to do anything but dodge at first. She scanned her opponent, trying to figure out his attack pattern. "Gotcha!" she shouted, lunging for his arm.

Ryuko was able to grab it, but in the next instant she was thrown loose. Ryuko flailed wildly, her balance disrupted. She crashed into a cave wall, unable to right herself in time. Cracks spread throughout that section of wall and the damaged area crashed down.

Ryuko stood up, shaking her head to clear it. Her armor now had more than a few dents in it and was covered in dust. A cut above her eye leaked blood. Ryuko narrowed her eyes at her opponent, ignoring her wounds. She leaped into the air, snarling, "I'm not done yet!"

The cat dodged her initial attack, swinging at her as she went past. Ryuko lashed at the cat with her tail. The barb on the end would deal some damage if it connected. The cat dove out of the way. Ryuko started to prepare her final attack, one that would make use of the height difference. However, before she could finish it, her opponent had already darted back up to her level. He swung a vicious swipe at Ryuko's face.

"Protective Embrace of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko cried. She crossed her arms in front of her face. Dark energy leaked out of her shoulders, forming powerful wings like when she used Flight of the Dark Dragon. However, the wings crossed in front of her, shielding her from the attack. The attack slammed into it, pushing Ryuko back a bit, but leaving her unharmed. The wings dissipated as if they were never there.

"Claws of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted. She pulled back one arm, raising it behind her head. The familiar dark energy gathered at her fingertips. Ryuko slashed forwards with her hand and five arcs of energy shot out of her fingers. The black, claw-shaped attack shot towards Ryuko's enemy.

His eyes widened, as he knew that he had no time to dodge. So instead, he brought his arms together, hoping to block the worst of the attack. The five arcs slammed into his arms, pushing him across the cave at a rapid speed.

He was slammed into the opposite cave wall. He emerged from the resulting plume of dust panting, with blood dripping down his forearms. "This... isn't over yet!" he growled. "I will never let you hurt him!"  
_Hurt who? _Ryuko wondered. "Hey, wait-" she started to say. She was interrupted as the cat leaped through the air and flung himself at her. _Oh crap, _Ryuko thought. She was pretty much out of magic power. The last attack was one of the most powerful attacks she knew, not including her _Dark Focuses, _which she hadn't really mastered yet. It has used up most of her magic power, and if her wings and tail drained magic power at a steady rate then she would have already collapsed.

Ryuko crossed her arms in front her her, waiting for the impact. However, the big, powerful cat turned back into a small cat just before he hit her. Ryuko got some small cat scratches on her forearms, but it was no big deal. She opened her eyes to see her enemy fall to the ground.

Ryuko closed her wings and landed as gracefully as she could in her present situation. The wings and tail vanished and she walked over to her fallen opponent. "Come to finish me off?" he asked.

"No, actually," Ryuko said, although she would have if her enemy wasn't so... strange. "I wanted to know what you meant when you said 'I will never let you hurt him'. Hurt who? I didn't come here to hurt anyone."

"Yeah, right," the cat said. "You came looking for the gryphon bones, like everyone else here!"

"Gryphon bones?" she asked. "You mean... they're here? In this cave?"

"No... no of course not!" the cat said quickly. "There's nothing here! Nothing at all!"  
"Stop it... Hakai..." a rasping voice came from the corner. "She's not... an enemy..."

Ryuko looked over at the shadowy corner... and gaped as the gryphon raised his head to look at her.

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	9. Meeting of the Four Sides

A/N Thanks for the reviews/alerts/favorites last chapter! You guys are awesome!

**_On to the story  
_**

The gryphon stared at Ryuko with eyes of burnished gold. They were fierce eyes, like a hawk's, or an eagle. The front, bird part was covered in faded gold feathers. His lion parts were a lighter, more brown shade. Two battered wings were folded neatly at his sides. They looked as if they had not been used for a long time. Even though the creature was obviously old, he still had a fierce, majestic air around him.

Ryuko could do nothing but stare. Hekai, however, was not so awestruck. "What do you mean?" he snapped. "How can she not be an enemy! She's human!"

The gryphon sighed wearily. Ryuko looked down at the small cat, then, having recovered from the sight of the gryphon, said quietly, "You know, not too long ago, I shared the same prejudice."

Hekai did not pay attention to her comment, but the gryphon did., He glanced at Ryuko sharply before replying to Hekai. "If she...meant to harm me..." The gryphon coughed weakly before continuing, and Ryuko looked at him with concern in her eyes. The gryphon continued, "she would have... done so... already. Besides... she smells... though faintly... of... an old friend. I... doubt that... friend... would have... told... her to go... after magical... creatures..."

The gryphon broke off as he had another coughing fit. Hekai looked at his friend with more than a little concern. _These fits are becoming frequent, _he thought. _Maybe... maybe Firath is right that he is dying... No! _He mentally reprimanded himself. _Don't think like that! Firath is definitely not going to die!_

Ryuko had rushed forwards and was now kneeling by the gryphon's side. Her face was the picture of worry as she watched the coughing gryphon. _I wish that I could heal... _she thought, not for the first time. _But Acnologia is the dragon of destruction... not healing. _Once the coughing had stopped, she asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm... fine," the gryphon rasped. "Don't... worry... about me..." His voice was weaker than before.

Ryuko sighed and stood up. "I wish I could do something to help... but my magic isn't subtle like healing. Its mostly highly destructive combat magic..." Ryuko really wished there was a healer in the room right then. Even a healer who used herbs and medicines would be better than what they had.

The gryphon looked directly at her, then. His eyes captured hers. Ryuko felt as though she couldn't look away from those fierce orbs. He still held a measure of grace and power that demanded her respect. It was, she thought, perhaps how other people might feel around a dragon. "It's... fine," the gryphon said after a long moment. "I... knew... that... my time... would come... soon... My... nakama... have already... left... this world..."

"How horrible," Ryuko said softly. "To be left alone, without any friends to be with you."

"It's not... so... bad..." the gryphon said. "I have... Hekai... after all..." The gryphon's eyes closed and his head was lowered to the floor. Ryuko was scared for a moment that he had died right in front of her, but then she realized that he was only sleeping.

"It's okay," she said to Hekai, who was trying to hide his worry. "He's only sleeping."

"I don't need you to tell me that!" the black cat spat. He stalked off and leaned against a cave wall. "Firath may trust you, but I don't!"

"I wouldn't expect you to..." Ryuko murmured, too soft for him to hear. She understood feelings. There was some kind of raw anger in his voice whenever he spoke to her, that told her that he had had some bad encounters with humans in the past. She knew that humans could be very cruel to creatures that they didn't understand.

_**Kaya**_

Kaya closed her eyes, sighing. She had tried to make the mayor think that she had a large group of people at her disposal, but in reality, there was only her, Myra, and Saku. Myra's Camouflage Magic was able to hide the group of mages. Kaya showed off with her own magic and made the village guards think that she was really powerful. Saku's Illusion Magic allowed him to create the illusion of a large group of bandits attacking the people along the road.

It was hard, but so far they had pulled it off. _But for how much longer? _Kaya wondered. _And are we going to be enough to defeat him when the time comes?_

Myra suddenly appeared in front of her. Kaya schooled her features to her normal cold expression and asked, "What is it, Myra?"

"I've found what appears to be a cave entrance. Kaya... there are village guards stationed outside of it!"

Kaya nodded to herself. _So the time has come... _"I see. Is Saku back yet?"

"No. He was to be gone until nightfall. We have no way of contacting him, either," Myra replied. Her brows were creased with worry. "Kaya... I believe that this may be where the gryphon bones are. The fact that there are guards outside-"

"I know. We go. Now," Kaya commanded. Her eyes were narrowed and her voice was as hard as steel. "We can not let him get his hands on those bones!"

Myra eyed Kaya curiously, startled by the vehemence in her voice. Myra had never learned why Kaya was so set on stopping this man. Anyone gaining immortality was a bad thing... but it seemed to go beyond that.

"Come _on, _Myra!" Kaya said, already heading into the forest. "We don't have all day!"

"I know that," Myra said. The two of them walked through the forest, discussing their attack strategy.

_**Back at Fairy Tail**_

Natsu raised a S-class job flier in front of Lucy's face, grinning. "Come on, let's go!" he said.

"N-no way!" Lucy protested. "That's an S-Class job! We can't do that!"

"But look at the reward..." Natsu said, firmly believing that he could get Lucy to come with him.

"One of the golden gate keys!" Lucy said happily, her mind now firmly made up. "Come on, let's go!"

Natsu laughed. This had been even easier than he thought it would be! "Now you two, get out!" Lucy said firmly, pushing Natsu and Happy out of her apartment.

Natsu grinned, still extremely happy. "We can finally go on an S-class job!" he said excitedly.

"Aye!" Happy said, just as happy as Natsu, though for different reasons... "Now where's my fish?"

_**Ryuko**_

"Well, I'm leaving for a bit," Ryuko said after a moment. "And don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone..."

Hekai glared at her. "You better not!"

Ryuko walked into the tunnel, ignoring the cat. She exited it the way that she had come down, simply flying out. _I'm glad my magic power has mostly returned, _she thought. _It would be bad if, say, the mayor found the cave while I was completely out of magic power. He could be weak... but it is more likely that he is strong and I will need every ounce of my magic power to defeat him..._

Ryuko flew above the forest for a bit before diving under the cover of the trees and dodging them. She was looking for Kaya and her group. Now that the bones had been found, it was important that she talk to Kaya and decide once and for all whether she was trustworthy or not.

A voice called out from the shadows and Ryuko spun, nearly hitting a tree with her wingtip. She landed and got into an offensive stance. "Calm down," the voice said. Myra, the woman who Ryuko had fought before, suddenly appeared. "I'm not gonna attack you... even though I want to. Kaya told me to keep an eye out for you."

Ryuko narrowed her eyes, looking at the other woman. She knew that Myra didn't trust her... but didn't believe that Myra would disobey a command from Kaya... if there was such a command. "And what did Kaya want you to tell me?" Ryuko asked, watching the other woman carefully.

"That the mayor might have found the bones. There was a giant hole in the ground which sloped downwards into a tunnel. And there were guards posted there."

Ryuko's eyes widened in alarm. "Thank you," was all she said before leaping back into the air, and moving through the trees even faster, not caring to dodge the branches anymore.

_**Myra**_

Myra shrugged. Well, she had told Ryuko Kaya's message... she headed back towards the hole, where she knew Kaya was headed.

She arrived there in a few minutes and was hidden by her Camouflage Magic once more. Kaya was already there, watching the guards. Myra extended the magic to cover Kaya and asked her, "Did you find any information?"

"None... except that the mayor's real name is Shizako. I think both of the guards know what's going on.," Kaya said softly. Myra's magic didn't conceal sound.

"I see... that probably means they are powerful," Myra said.

"Not necessarily... we don't know how powerful Shizako is," Kaya argued.

"How about we go and find out?" Myra asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Myra, don't!" Kaya called after her, but Myra had already dropped the shield and was advancing across the clearing. Kaya cursed under her breath and followed.

"Hey there," Myra called out once they were within talking distance. "We're archaeologists and we have good reason to believe that this would be a great site for a dig, considering this tunnel, since it could have formed around ruins."

_If the know _anything _at _all _about archeology they won't fall for that... idiot! _Kaya thought.

"Yeah, right," one of the guards said. "even if you _are archaeologists_, we can't let you pass! Our mayor has commanded that we guard this tu-er, hole, from everyone!"

"That is most unfortunate," Myra said. "I'll take them, you go on ahead!"

"Eh?" Kaya said, startled. "But..."

"Just go," Myra said quietly. "If this Shizako has discovered the bones, then it is vital that at least one of us stop him! I'll take care of the guards and then follow you."

Kaya hesitated, then nodded slowly. She turned and ran into the tunnel.

Myra grinned and spun to face the guards. She unsheathed her sword. "Now who's first?" she asked with an evil glint in her eye.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko dove into the tunnel and nearly collided with Kaya. "You can fly?" Kaya asked, startled.

"Yes. You knew?" Ryuko asked in response.

"Yes," Kaya replied. "There is no time. We must go."

"It will be faster if I carry you," Ryuko said before picking up Kaya and flying down the tunnel as fast as she could. Ryuko still didn't trust Kaya, but at the moment they appeared to be working towards the same goal.

Ryuko gritted her teeth and concentrated on flying. With every beat of her wings, they brushed the wall. If she did not stay exactly centered, she could end up crashing into the wall if her balance was upset.

Ryuko shot into the cavern... and immediately stopped. She was too late... Hekai had been thrown in a corner. He was covered in blood and appeared to be unconscious. The gryphon lay in a great heap in the middle of the floor... and the mayor was standing victorious over it all.

As she watched, he tossed the bloody head of the gryphon to the side. He pulled out one of the gryphon's neck bones with a sickening _plop. _Ryuko shuddered as he lifted it to his mouth... and bit down.

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	10. Saku and Myra vs Crizar and Hazhar

A/N Sorry for the late update... but my beta had a bunch of homework and I couldn't think of any cool magic for a while... anyway...

_Recap_

_ Ryuko shot into the cavern... and immediately stopped. She was too late... Hekai had been thrown in a corner. He was covered in blood and appeared to be unconscious. The gryphon lay in a great heap in the middle of the floor... and the mayor was standing victorious over it all. _

_ As she watched, he tossed the bloody head of the gryphon to the side. He pulled out one of the gryphon's neck bones with a sickening plop. Ryuko shuddered as he lifted it to his mouth... and bit down._

_**On to the story**_

A dark gold aura surrounded Shizako. Before long he was hidden by it. Ryuko turned to Kaya, knowing that she had a minute or two before Shizako would attack. "What can you do?" she asked quickly.

"I'm an ice wizard," Kaya replied curtly.

"I think I can get a guaranteed shot if I'm above him," Ryuko said.

Kaya nodded. "Understood." The two wizards stood together. Ryuko was in a slightly crouched position, her hands curled into fists in front of her chest. Kaya was in a more tense position, crouched down lower, every muscle in her body tensed to spring. Her ice-blue eyes surveyed the room, looking for anything at all that might be useful.

Hekai weakly opened one eye in the corner. He saw the two wizards, and hoped against hope that they would be able to defeat Firath's killer. _I was too weak... _he thought sadly. _I'm sorry... Firath._

_**Myra**_

Myra gripped her sword tightly and waited for the guards' response. The taller one backed up and said, "You will regret messing with the mighty Hazhar!" He raised his arms in a complex gesture and closed his eyes. "Go now, Crizar!" he called out.

The guard leaped forwards, with two large broadswords. Myra leaped backwards before he hit, hiding herself momentarily with her magic. The broadsword that the guard was attacking with slammed into the ground, edge first, making a neat slice.

Crizar pulled out the shield and grinned. "Looks like she ran away, eh?"

"It would appear so," Hazhar replied. "Come, lets go. We have to stop the other one."

Myra lunged towards Crizar's back, flickering into view due to the fact that she could not use her Camouflage Magic and attack at the same time. She brought her sword down, intending to go for the kill. However, Hazhar shouted out a warning and her opponent spun, blocking her attack with one sword while trying to cut her with the other.

Myra leaped backwards, trying to keep an eye on both opponents. She noticed that the taller one, the one who had called himself Hazhar, was staying in the back and appeared to be doing nothing. Could it be some sort of team attack? Perhaps Hazhar was lending strength to the other guard or something similar.

If that was the case, then she would probably have to take out Hazhar first. Myra used her magic again, hiding herself. She darted over to where Hazhar was, intending to kill him and then deal with the other guard.

However, Crizar seemed to anticipate where she would come out. He blocked her slash with his sword. "You're going to have to be smarter than that," he said easily. Myra's eyes widened. _How did he track me? I should have been completely invisible to his eyes while using my magic! Does he have __some kind of magic that counteracts mine?_

Myra backed off, cursing under her breath. At the rate this fight was going, the fighter would wear her down while Hazhar gave him support. Myra knew that if this fight dragged on too long, she would lose. She had to distract the fighter so she could defeat Hazhar... but how? If Saku was here, she would be able to do it. The two of them fought really well together... _Is there some way I can call him? _she wondered. _He's too far away for me to get him then come back... the guards will go after Kaya then and as well as this pair work together, they could present a problem, even for her._

Myra sighed. About the only thing she could do was make some sort of call and hope that Saku heard. _That man is rather lazy... it's possible that he stopped looking or was an idiot and started looking in this direction instead. If he's nearby he'll hear me. _Myra narrowed her eyes... and danced backwards as a sword whistled past her ear. Her lapse in concentration had nearly killed her.

Myra took a deep breath while blocking the man's next attack and screeched as loudly as she could. The cry, like that of a falcon, meant that she was in trouble. If Saku heard it, he'd come. She screeched again, for good measure, and launched an attack of her own.

Her opponent blocked it easily and attacked. The fight went back and forth like that for a few more minutes. By that time, Myra was panting heavily and she had a few small cuts from she had not dodged quickly enough. She also had a more serious injury on her arm. She had managed to rip off a sleeve of her dress to tie around the wound to stop the bleeding. It still stung, though.

_At this rate, _Myra thought, _he's gonna defeat me in a few more minutes. If Saku doesn't show up soon, then I'm dead. _Myra blocked the fighter's next strike, and leaped backwards just in time as her sword shattered. _Aaaand... I'm dead, _Myra thought, waiting for the blow that would end her life.

However, the guard suddenly looked around, confused. He seemed to be looking first at her then off to his right. He cried out and raised his sword to ward off an invisible blow. Saku stepped out of the bushes and grinned at her. Myra hid them both and they ran to the edge of the clearing, going into the forest.

"So you heard me, then," Myra said softly. She knew that Saku's illusion would keep the guards busy for a minute or two.

"Yes," Saku replied. "I did not think you were one to lose so easily."

Myra glared at him. "One of them is giving strength to the other. The fighting one figured out how to track me when I'm using my magic."

"I see..." Saku murmured. "Then I'll hold the fighter off, while you go and defeat the supporter."

Myra nodded. "Very well." Saku's features rearranged themselves as Myra's and he leaped out of the bushes. Myra dropped the spell on him as he did so. Saku lunged towards the fighter, twin blades in his hand. As they fought, Myra traveled, unnoticed, towards the supporter.

Myra appeared behind the soldier and slashed across his back mercilessly. Hazhar fell back, his mouth opening and a soundless cry coming out. He staggered backwards for a moment then shook his head and glared at Myra. "I will kill you!" he snarled angrily. The glow vanished from around Crizar.

Hazhar raised his hands and starting making symbols in the air, chanting quietly. Myra stared at him for a moment before realizing that Hazhar was probably using some kind of magic. _I wonder what his magic is, exactly? _Myra wondered. _He was able to boost his friend's attack, yet that's not all he can do, so it isn't some kind of Support Magic. _Myra shook her head and leaped forwards, intending to strike before her opponent finished whatever he was doing.

The glyphs suddenly started glowing red and shot towards her. Myra's eyes widened and she leaped to the side, dodging the majority. However, one of them nicked her, cutting her shoulder. Myra winced in pain but ignored it, facing Hazhar again.

She heard a whistling coming from behind her. _Oh crap! _Myra thought, as she realized what it meant. She desperately dove to the side, praying that she would be able to dodge it in time. The five glyphs that she'd dodged before hurtled through the spot she had just been in. Myra breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she had been able to get out of the way in time. If those had hit it would have really, really hurt.

The glyphs were hurtling towards her again, and Myra slashed at one of them while leaping out of the way of the others. The one that she cut fell apart, having been sliced neatly in two. The two halves sizzled weakly before disappearing altogether. The remaining four separated and shot towards Myra from four different directions.

"See the power of my Glyph Magic!" Hazhar said smugly. "I can place my Glyphs on people, giving buffs, and I can also use my Glyphs as weapons!"

_So that's it, _Myra thought. She slashed ran towards one of the glyphs and slashed it in half, creating an opening. She ran through it and the other three smashed together just behind her.

Myra glanced quickly at Hazhar while running away from the glyphs to find that he was making more. Myra cursed and leaped towards him, ignoring the glyphs.

Hazhar stared at her in shock and hurried up the incantation. He had obviously not expected her to come at him like that. Hazhar raised his hand to make the glyphs target her... but Myra slashed first. The new glyphs were cut in half by the same stroke that cut Hazhar's whole torso diagonally. Hazhar fell back, his eyes rolling back into his head.

Myra screamed as the three glyphs hit her back with full force. The world turned black around her. Her last thought was that she had beaten him.

_**Saku**_

Saku jerked around at Myra;s scream, and saw her prone form on the ground. She wasn't exactly covered in blood, but she was pretty banged up. Her opponent lay next to her, blood pooling from a great slash across his chest.

Saku spun around just in time to block another blow from the swordsman. He backed up a step and raised his free hand. A mighty tiger took shape beside him. It was covered in armor. The tiger lunged at Saku's opponent, slashing with its claws.

"That's not real!" the man said scornfully, ignoring the tiger. "My magic is Sight Magic. It allows me to see through magic so that way I can tell what's really there!"

"So that's how you were able to track Myra," Saku said flatly. "In that case..." Saku leaped forwards, slashing with both his blades.

His opponent blocked easily. "I am Crizar, the great swordsman! You can not possible defeat me with blades!"

_Just my luck, _Saku thought. _I get an opponent who can see through my illusions _and _block my swords. _"That may be so, but I shall beat you anyway!" Saku charged, trying to distract Crizar while thinking of something he could do. His illusions were immaterial, they had no real substance... _Wait, _he thought. _What about _that_?_

Saku nodded grimly to himself. It was his only chance. It would take up the rest of his magic power but... as things were he was going to lose if he didn't try this. "Take this!" he shouted. "Illusion Magic: Solid Phoenix!"

A speck of fire appeared next to him. The fire quickly grew until it was about the size of a large bird. Then it took the shape of a mighty bird. It was a phoenix, made out of solid flame.

The bird screamed and Crizar took a step back. The bird lunged at him, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. Crizar turned and ran, terrified. The bird chased after him. Saku sighed and sat back. The phoenix had been a risky gamble, especially as he hadn't perfect the spell yet. It created a phoenix that was solid but was actually very weak. However, it looked terrifying enough that it caused opponents to run.

Saku groaned and leaned back. He wanted to go and check on Myra, but he didn't have the energy. He felt as if he couldn't move at all. Well, that was what happened when you completely run out of magic power.

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	11. Power of the Bones

A/N Quick update for once! I'm glad you all liked the fight last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one just as much.

Ryuko watched the golden curtain that hid the mayor. Her eyes glinted in rage at the fact that the mayor had actually _eaten _Firath's bones. That was... just wrong. She would kill him for that! No one should be allowed to get away with eating a sentient creature. She would make him pay! Ryuko realized that she had already discounted the possibility that the bones really _did _make someone immortal, and the fact that if they did then there was no way that she could win—wait why was she thinking about it?

Ryuko's gaze grew more intent as the curtain around the mayor dissipated. The man now looked different. He was noticeably taller and his once black hair was now pure gold. It was also longer, falling down to the middle of his back instead of just barely brushing his shoulders like it used to.

"Well, well," Shizako said. His voice had changed too, it was now pure, like the ringing of a bell. A vicious smile came over his face. "I can feel it..." he murmured. "The power! It's surging through my bones!"

Ryuko blinked at him. _Power... _she thought. _Not immortality. Does that mean that the bones don't actually give immortality? _

"Power so great... that I will crush you like tiny ants!" Shizako shouted. "My Spark Make magic is now Fire Make! I will show you the power... of a god! Fire Make..." Shizako clasped his hands together in front of his face, almost as if he was praying. He pulled them apart and a ball of fire formed between them. "Disc!" Shizako shouted. The fire took form into two blazing discs of magic. They hovered in the air for a moment before one of them shot towards each of them.

Ryuko pulled back her hand and waited for the disc to come within range. "Punch of the Dark Dragon!" she said, lashing out with an energy-covered fist. The disc shattered into two pieces which disappeared after a few seconds.

Kaya, meanwhile, had attached a piece of ice to the disc. The fire melted the ice, causing water to drip onto the fire, putting it out. _That's a clever use of her power, _Ryuko thought admiringly. _To think that she would deliberately make weak ice so that way the attack would melt it... that's certainly something that I would have never thought of._

Shizako glared at them angrily. How could they have destroyed his attack so easily? "Fire Make: Tiger!" he shouted. Fire formed between his palms then flowed outwards, pooling on the cave floor. The fire rose up into the shape of a mighty tiger made out of flame. It raised its head and roared in a menacing manner as its flames surged brighter, creating an aura of heat that Ryuko could feel even as far back as she was. Kaya moved backwards slightly and Ryuko realized that Kaya was probably weak to fire. At the very least she couldn't like it much.

The tiger leaped towards them and Ryuko ran forwards into its path, yelling "Protective Embrace of the Dark Dragon!" Wings shot out of her shoulders and formed a protective X in front of her body. The tiger's jaws gripped one of the wings and it tried to pull it apart before it faded.

The wings vanished and Ryuko growled in vexation. "I'm not letting you just attack us!" she declared. "Claw of the Dark Dragon!" She pulled back her hand and energy gathered at one of her fingernails. This way it took less energy, and the individual attack was still as strong. Ryuko slashed forwards, creating an arc in the air. The arc of dark murky magic shot towards Shizako at an incredibly fast speed, causing Shizako to leap aside in order to dodge. The arc smashed into the wall.

A yell came from behind Ryuko. "Roar of the Ice Dragon!" Kaya shouted, spitting a vortex made out of swirling shards of ice directly at Shizako.

"Fire Make: Wall!' Shizako countered. Fire pooled on the floor, taking the shape of a wall of fire which rose up in front of him. Kaya gritted her teeth and put more power into the roar. It smashed through the fire and slammed into Shizako, throwing him backwards.

Ryuko leaped after the mayor, not one to waste an opportunity. She dodged to the side as a lance made out of fire shot past her head. It was so close that it singed a few strands of her hair. Ryuko leaped backwards and narrowed her eyes. She had just gotten another idea for an attack. However, she didn't know if it would work or not, and testing things in the middle of combat was not a good idea. She decided to think about it later.

"Quick Slash of the Ice Dragon," Kaya said coolly. She raised two fingers and clenched the rest of her hand into a fist. A thin piece of ice shot out of each finger with lightning speed. Shizako leaped to the side, neatly dodging the attack. The ice thudded into the wall behind him. Kaya stared at Shizako with frustration on her face. He was just too fast for her to hit.

"Flight of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted, leaping into the air as her wings and tail materialized. Ryuko shot up into the air, positioning herself over Shizako. Shizako looked up and grinned. Ryuko knew that she wouldn't have time to do Plunge of the Dark Dragon, so she opened her mouth to say another attack. At the same time Kaya screamed, "Behind you!" frantically. Ryuko twisted midair, and saw a fiery whip headed straight for her. Ryuko rolled midair, for once regretting the fact that her wings were not magical wings and were in fact bound by all the things that normal wings were bound by.

Ryuko did not move quickly enough and the fire slammed into her right wing. Ryuko rolled over and over in the air, wildly trying to recover her balance. She saw that she was headed towards a wall and desperately tried to get her body under control. She couldn't, and smashed into the wall headfirst.

Kaya glared at Shizako. "You will pay for that," she said motionlessly, having already recovered from the shock of before. She was not going to let this... this disgrace to humans get the satisfaction of making her all emotional. She crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes. "Roar of the Ice Dragon," she said calmly. A swirling vortex of ice shards shot out of Kaya's mouth, heading straight for Shizako.

"Fire Make: Shield!" The mayor shouted, forming a shield of fire in front of his face and chest. The ice slammed into the shield and it looked like the shield would hold.

"Claw of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko called out, half-standing up. She pulled back her hand, and slashed. The black arc of energy that shot out of her fingertip raced towards Shizako, slamming into the shield at the same spot Kaya's roar was. Both attacks pushed against the shield, finally causing it to shatter. However, most of the attacks' energy was spent and Shizako dodged them easily.

Ryuko walked back over to Kaya. She wasn't that hurt, with only a few scratches as her armor had protected her from most of the impact. "Fire Make: Dragon!" shouted Shizako. A mighty dragon formed in front of him. Its eyes glowed red hot as it looked around the room. After a moment its gaze came to rest on Kaya, and it raised its head and roared before leaping towards her.

Kaya stared at it with an expression on her face that was close to terror. It was clearly something that Kaya would stand no chance against; her ice would be melted by the fire and this was not the kind of fire that could be dealt with water.

Ryuko threw herself in front of Kaya, screaming, "Protective Embrace of the Dark Dragon!" Wings burst from her shoulders, crossing in front of her body. The dragon's claws slammed into the shield hurling Ryuko back against a wall. It leaped towards Kaya, intent on killing her.

"Roar of the Ice Dragon!" Kaya shouted, doing her best to fight back. The dragon might be made of fire, which was her bane, but that didn't mean that she would do nothing to try and stop it. She spat the vortex of ice shards directly at the dragon. It took the hit but emerged from a cloud of water vapor with hardly any harm. The dragon still had not dissipated, which meant this was had to be a really strong attack to last so long.

The dragon spat fire at Kaya and she dodged automatically. Anything that hot would kill her if it touched her. The dragon leaped at Kaya again, its jaws opening wide as it tried to bite her. "Fangs of the Ice Dragon!" Kaya shouted, real desperation in her voice. An icicle-like protrusion formed at each one of her wrists.

Kaya held the dragon's mouth open with the fangs, one arm for the top and one for the bottom. She could see the glow building in its throat as it prepared to spit fire.

"Claws of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted from behind Kaya. Five arcs of energy shot past Kaya straight into the dragon's throat. Kaya leaped backwards as the dragon lost its shape, then dissipated.

"You... you defeated my dragon!" Shizako shouted. His eyes turned to pure gold. "Gryphon Soul!"

_**Kuro**_

Kuro scowled. "How was I supposed to know that quest was so deadly?" he muttered. He had already reached the gates and was heading after Ryuko. He only prayed that he could reach her in time. If any of them died now... it would be catastrophic!

Kuro could sense the magic power within her, knew that she was, if he pushed himself, only perhaps an hours' flight or less ahead of him. He could feel her power waning and knew that she was in the middle of a very difficult fight. If it turned out she couldn't handle it... then she would die and all would be lost, seeing as _she _was the one who was supposed to—

Kuro shook his head, trying to distract himself from that pessimistic thought. _I will get there, _he thought. _I will not let you die! _

_**Shizako**_

Shizako felt power pumping through his veins as he was enveloped by golden light. A giant magic circle formed above him and he could feel his body changing. _They will not stop me! _he thought triumphantly. _I will kill them and then I will go and make myself leader of the Dark Guilds!_

Outside the aura, Ryuko and Kaya had regrouped. They were standing next to each other again and Ryuko was quickly eating the shadow of one of the falling stalactites. It didn't matter if that was destroyed. What concerned her was how long it took her to eat shadows and that it wouldn't give her that much energy back. She had still not found anything that she could use to replenish her power. Shadows were the best thing she had available to her here, and every bit would help in the upcoming battle.

Ryuko was able to eat two shadows before the transformation finished, which did give her back some power. Either it took longer to transform the first time you did it, or a long transformation time was a drawback of the spell. A spell couldn't be completely perfect after all. Theoretically, anyway.

The aura disappeared and a gryphon was standing where Shizako was. The eyes were pure gold and hard and cruel, unlike Firath's, which were kind and warm. A vicious, hooked beak extended outwards from a gold-feathered eagle's face. Feathers extended down from his neck to part of his belly and a bit on his back, where it met fur again. Powerful claws came out of lion's paws. His tail was also lion's, with the normal tuft of fur on the end replaced with fire.

Overall he was a magnificent creature, a gryphon in his prime. Everything about him seemed hard and cruel, though. There was nothing soft or warm about him; even the fire that burned on his tail seemed to exude no warmth.

The gryphon raised his head and screeched and Kaya and Ryuko sprang into action. Kaya dove at its right side, yelling, "Quick Slash of the Ice Dragon!" She pulled her fingers back and hurled the two pieces of ice at the gryphon.

Ryuko leaped at the gryphon's other side, using Punch of the Dark Dragon. Both attacks hit, but neither appeared to do any damage. "Both attacks landed on his feathers," Ryuko hissed to Kaya. "It could be the feathers are invincible. Aim for the fur next time."

Kaya simply nodded, getting in position for another attack. Ryuko suddenly got an idea and whispered it in Kaya's ear. Kaya, hesitated for a moment, before finally acquiesced. Ryuko gripped Kaya and leaped into the air, using Flight of the Dark Dragon. The gryphon snapped open his own gold-feathered wings and leaped after them. He would have been beautiful if he had not been trying to kill them. Ryuko grimaced, knowing they had to attack now before the gryphon got any higher.

The Dark Dragon Slayer closed her wings and dove, while the ice Dragon Slayer pulled her head back. "Unison Raid!" they yelled together. "Plunge of the Icy Darkness!" The two woman accelerated, racing towards the gryphon with all the speed of Ryuko's attack. A shield formed around their heads as they shot towards their enemy.

Kaya shot ice out of her mouth as they collided. The gryphon shouted his own attack and there was a loud _boom _that shook the cave walls. The cavern blazed with light and darkness and golden fire, making it impossible to see anything.

_**Near the Tunnel Mouth**_

"Did you hear something?" Myra asked. She had recovered enough to get into a sitting position. She was currently bandaging her wounds, while Saku did the same for his.

Saku nodded. "Yeah," he said softly. "I think the ground shook there, too." _Kaya... _he thought worriedly. _Are you going to be alright? _

The two of them stared down the tunnel, wishing they could go and help. However, they knew that they were too weak and would only be a hindrance at this point, without their magic power. All they could do was wait... and pray.

_**Down in the Cavern**_

Kaya and Ryuko lay together at the bottom of a deep crater. Their eyes were closed and they were unconscious. A great gryphon rose out of the pit, smirking. "Fools!" he snarled, his voice twisted and evil. "Younglings like you could never beat me!"

The gryphon suddenly spun, having sensed another human. "Come out!" Shizako shouted.

"Gladly," a soft voice whispered. Despite being soft, it was as hard as steel, and had as little warmth. A dark shape stepped out of the tunnel mouth. "Were you the one who did this to them?" he asked quietly, gesturing to Ryuko and Kaya.

"Yes. So what of it?" Shizako said, smirking. He liked this form and thought he would keep it for a while. For some reason it did not appear to use up magic power to stay in it. That was probably just another quality of the getting this power through eating gryphon bones.

"Then die," the figure said, just as quietly. Shizako started backwards, surprised for a moment.

"Fool! You can not pos-" His voice was cut off as a wave of darkness crashed into him, throwing him against a wall. Shizako was shocked at the power behind the attack. Despite the fact that he had used a fair amount of power against the two idiots on the ground behind him, he still had plenty left. He hadn't even had a chance to react against the man's attack.

"You are the fool," the man said. "Do. Not. Mess. With. Fairy. Tail." Shizako felt a sword against his throat, and, for the first time since eating the gryphon's bones, felt fear. The sword moved, and Shizako's head went spinning away to land on the ground.

Kuro sheathed his sword and walked over to Ryuko and Kaya. He pulled them out of the hole, and, after making sure they weren't going to die, turned around to leave the cave. It wouldn't do for the two of them to know who saved them. Then he noticed the small cat in the corner.

Kuro checked the cat's condition as well and found out that he was an Exceed. _Well, _he thought. _It appears Dragon Slayers really _do _attract them... _Kuro chuckled to himself before leaving the cavern.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	12. Aftermath

A/N So I was planning to have them head back to Fairy Tail and all... but that's gonna have to wait for another chapter. This one ended up longer than I thought it would... sorry for the late update but there's been some family stuff I had to deal with. Anyways, o_**n to the story.**_

Ryuko blinked awake. The world was fuzzy for a moment before it clicked into focus and she saw that Kaya's anxious face was hovering above her own.

Ryuko slowly sat up, rubbing her head. She looked around and saw that she was still in the cave. "Did... did we win?" Ryuko asked. Her head was pounding and Ryuko realized that the unison raid had probably taken even more out of her than just Plunge of the Dark Dragon would have.

"I am not so sure," Kaya said. "We are not dead and I am fairly confident we would be if we had lost... yet Shizako is dead... and his head appears to have been cut off. Would your Plunge of the Dark Dragon have done this?"

"No, it wouldn't have," Ryuko said slowly. "If it had hit Shizako's head then it would be a crushed and bloody mess... Plunge of the Dark Dragon doesn't cut, it squishes."

"That's a fine mental image..." Kaya muttered. "Thanks for that."

"You're welcome," Ryuko said dryly. "But seriously, if it wasn't us, then who killed him? Could it have been one of your allies?"

"No..." Kaya said softly. "Myra was dealing with the guards, she would have been way too  
exhausted magically to do anything. Saku was far away on a mission. Do you  
know any who could have intervened?"

"No one would have come after me," Ryuko said with certainty. "I've done a few jobs by now, even if those have been the ones that have a very small death risk. The job I went on was a routine bandit-killing job. No one would have gone after me for that... Fairy Tail has some unspoken guidelines about this sort of thing, too."

Kaya sighed and stood up. "Well, sitting here isn't going to give us any answers. I suggest we get Myra and head back to my camp."

"Why not the town?" Ryuko asked reasonably.

Kaya stared at her, disbelief written all over her features. "You did not just say that. You did _not. _First off I'm a wanted criminal-"

"But they don't know your face!" Ryuko protested.

"Plus there's the fact that for all they know we _killed _their mayor!" Kaya continued.

"They don't know it was us..." Ryuko muttered.

"Perhaps not, but Shizako's body _will _be found!"

"But that's the body of a gryphon, not a human!"

"It'll turn back into a human's soon! The bones might have had powerful magic, but they can't last forever past the user's death!"

"Fine." Ryuko paused then turned over to look in the corner where Hekai was. "But what about _him _?"

"Who?" Kaya asked.

"The cat. In the corner."

"It's a _cat, _Ryuko."

"_He _can talk," Ryuko replied, stressing 'he'.

Kaya stared at Ryuko for a moment. "What?"

"You hear me... he's a very strange cat. I suggest we bring him with us."

"Oh fine... but _you're _carrying it!"

"It's not like I care," Ryuko retorted.

After a moment in which the two Dragon Slayers glared at each other (Kaya with the icy certainty of a glacier, and Ryuko with all the cool haughtiness being raised by Acnologia gave her) Ryuko turned and walked over to the corner. She carefully picked up the cat and started to walk towards the entrance. She noticed that Kaya was hesitating near the body.

"Don't even _think _about it," Ryuko said, her voice sharp. "He's not even a real gryphon, so it'd be cannibalism!"

"I _know _that," Kaya replied. "I just... you know... its so tempting..."

"No it is not tempting at all. Now let's _go_," Ryuko said firmly.

Kaya turned and walked with Ryuko down the tunnel. She did, however, glance back at the corpse as they left the cave.

_**Outside the tunnel entrance**_

Myra and Saku stood up. Enough magic power had returned to them that they thought they might be able to help Kaya in a fight. "Let's go," Myra said quietly.

"Yeah," Saku said. He sighed. "I really hope she hasn't gotten herself killed..."

` "It hasn't been that long since we met her, has it?" Myra asked.

"No it hasn't... it feels like a really long time though..."

"Yeah I know what you mean..." Myra said softly. She started thinking about how they had first met.

_~Begin flashback~_

_ Myra was an orphan who had been taken in by Saku's father. Saku's mom had been killed in a hunting accident years earlier. Myra didn't know what had happened to her parents, but she did know it wasn't good._

_ She had come to Saku's house when she was very small, too small to remember much. She was quickly accepted by Saku and the two of them could often be seen playing together. It was not uncommon for the two of them to try to sneak into the forest without permission. _

_ "We were only playing!" Saku protested, staring up at Papa, his innocent, blue eyes looking up at him pleadingly. _

_ "Son," Papa began, "there are dangerous things in the woods. It would be best for your safety... and your sister's... if you stayed in the village. Do you understand?"_

_ Saku didn't really understand what Papa was talking about but he realized that Papa didn't want them to go into the woods, and that he was concerned about them. "Okay, Papa," Saku said, readily agreeing._

_ "And you, Myra?" Papa asked, looking towards the little girl._

_ Myra was only four years old, two years younger than her brother. She blinked up at Papa, understanding even less than Saku did. "Okay, Papa," she said. "I understand."_

_ The two siblings were herded back to the village by Papa, and they resolved to stay there until they got older. They were sure that they were just too little to be in the woods, and once they were adults like Papa, they would be able to go into the forest and play to their hearts' content. Until then, they were happy to wait, if it would make Papa feel better. _

_ Two years passed like this. Then, one day, Myra woke up and realized she was invisible. It was a strange experience, being invisible. At first she thought it was a dream, but after pinching herself hard with her invisible arm—somehow she knew where it was, even though she couldn't see it—she decided that she was in fact awake._

_ She ran through the house into Saku's bedroom. "Saku!" she yelled. "Help me!" _

_ "Eh? What?" Saku muttered, blinking awake. "What's wrong, Myra?" He looked around the room in confusion. "Myra? Where are you?"_

_ "I'm right here! I'm invisible!" Myra stared at Saku pleadingly, though, of course, Saku couldn't see her._

_ "Invisible?!" Saku said in shock. His eyes were wide as he stared at the spot where his sister's voice was coming from. Saku raised his hand and tentatively reached out to touch Myra. His hand made contact with what felt like Myra's hand. "So you really are invisible... Can you control it? Like make yourself not be invisible?"_

_ "Maybe..." Myra said doubtfully. _

_ "Try!" Saku said encouragingly._

_ Myra closed her eyes and imagined herself visible. She tried very hard, trying to make it real. However, when she opened her eyes, she was still invisible. "This isn't working," she said._

_ "Hmm..." Saku said. "Maybe you're thinking about it the wrong way, or something. You might need to do something strange to dispel it. Magic is strange like that."_

_ Myra stared at Saku, completely shocked. "Magic?" she whispered._

_ "Yea..." Saku murmured. "You have to have it. You turned yourself invisible somehow, right?"_

_ Myra nodded and closed her eyes. Suddenly she got the feeling that what she was doing was like she was blending into her surroundings. It was almost like she was one with the white walls behind her. She tried to separate herself, to make herself be her own being again. Saku's cry of astonishment told her what she needed to know—she had managed some small mastery over her magic._

_ And so Myra learned her magic, and all was peaceful and good. However, this would not last, for one day, bandits came. _

_ They came in the night, burning and looting houses. Myra and Saku ran out into the street to see that the houses were all burning. A big bandit came running towards them, a giant sword raised over his head. _

_ Papa came running out of the house, then, half-naked. "Run!" he yelled at Saku and Myra. He had a sword in his hand and blocked the bandit's strike._

_ "Papa, no!" Myra screamed. "We won't leave you!"_

_ "Go!" Papa called, turning his head to look at them. "Run as fast as you can and don't stop running until you're in the forest!"_

_ At that point, Saku grabbed Myra's hand and they ran towards the forest. They continued running, although they eventually stopped for the night. Then they continued their flight. Their hearts were heavy for leaving Papa behind, but they knew that he had sacrificed his life for them, and they would not disrespect him by wasting that._

_ Eventually, they found a spot and set up camp. They made that their permanent base and lived their. Years later they met a stranger in the forest._

_ The other woman introduced herself, and the pair found out that her name was Kaya. They became friends and lived together in peace for a time. Then Kaya saw how Shizako killed the original mayor, and they learned about the plot._

_ From that moment, they felt as if they had a duty to stop Shizako. They swore to do so, and became "bandits" in order to hopefully make Shizako give up on what he was doing. _

_ That had been a month ago. _

_~End flashback~_

Saku and Myra stood in silence for a moment before turning and walking towards the cave entrance. However, they stopped as Ryuko and Kaya staggered out.

They both had several bandages in different places. Ryuko's armor was dusty and she looked exhausted. Kaya looked much the same. It was clear that their opponent had been powerful.

"Did you... did you beat him?" Myra asked in a trembling voice.

Kaya hesitated for a moment before nodding. She and Ryuko had decided to tell everyone that they had been the ones to beat Shizako—they thought that it was best to keep the knowledge of their benefactor to themselves.

"Anyway, let's head back to camp," Kaya said. She started walking off into the woods and the rest of the small party followed her.

After walking through the forest for about ten minutes, they came into a small clearing. There were a few tents set up around a central fireplace. Dense bramble thickets surrounded the sides of the encampment, making a natural barrier against predators.

There were four tents total. The fire pit in the center of the camp had blackened, half-burnt wood in it and there appeared to still be a few hot coals. "Go rest," Myra commanded her leader. "I'll get the fire going again and get some food cooking. Saku, go and tend to their wounds. It looks like Kaya did a rough job, but a few of them look serious enough to merit special attention."

Kaya nodded and led Ryuko over to one of the tents. It was plain canvas, without any special ornaments. Kaya lifted the flap and walked in, Ryuko followed her.

There was a bed of pine needles covered with a few blankets in the corner. A bowl held some water next to it. Kaya sat down on the makeshift bed and sighed. "Saku'll be here soon," she said softly. "Come on, sit down," she invited.

Ryuko nodded and sat down next to Kaya. She gently put Hekai down on the bed. "So..." she said after a moment. "You're a Dragon Slayer?"

"Yeah," Kaya said. "I'm the Ice Dragon Slayer. I know that you're one as well—I can smell it, but which one are you?"

"I'm the Dark Dragon Slayer!" Ryuko said proudly.

"So... what's your element?" Kaya asked.

"Darkness," Ryuko replied cheerfully.

"That's a really vague term. Could you... err, expand on that?"

Ryuko cocked her head to the side. "Well... I never really thought about it before... Um... I guess destruction? Death? Shadows? Something like that anyway."

"How can you not know your own element?" Kaya snapped.

Ryuko rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Well... that's because my teacher never told me and I never really cared enough to try and figure it out."

Kaya sighed. "Who was your teacher? Maybe that'll provide a clue."

"Acnologia!" Ryuko said, grinning. "He's the big, black dragon, with these cool, white eyes that never blink! And he's got these beautiful blue markings and all. He's quite soft, too..." Ryuko trailed off as she noticed Kaya's reaction. "Hey Kaya, what's wrong? Are you practicing Dragon Slayer magic or something?"

Kaya had, indeed, gone as white as ice. She was trembling a bit and staring at Ryuko with wide eyes. Pure shock was written across her face. "Um... Kaya?" Ryuko asked, waving a hand in front of Kaya's face.

Kaya didn't move. _I think I shocked her... _Ryuko thought. _I wonder why, though? It shouldn't really matter who my teacher is, right? Is Acnologia famous or something? I know he doesn't like humans much... and he's destroyed a few villages... but he has his reasons for hating humans..._

"A-acnologia?" Kaya finally said. "_He's _your teacher?" She had heard about Acnologia in a tavern somewhere. She didn't remember where, but some guy had mentioned the name and started talking about him. At that point, Kaya hadn't even known that Acnologia was a dragon.

"Yeah..." Ryuko said. "Is he famous or something? He's destroyed a few villages I think... but nothing that bad."

"He destroyed an entire country!" Kaya replied. "In less than a day!"

Ryuko whistled in amazement. "That I did not know... any idea what they did?"

"What do you mean, what they did? Acnologia just destroyed them 'cuz he's evil! There is no kindness in that heart, nothing but destruction! I doubt that monster even _has _a heart!"

"Acnologia is not evil!" Ryuko retorted. "He has a reason for hating humans, you know! And the ones that he's killed, he's killed out of revenge! Besides, he's different now!"

"Different?" Kaya raised an eyebrow skeptically. "How so? A monster like that can't change its very nature!"

"He took me in, didn't he? He _protected _me!" Ryuko protested.

Kaya's eyes glinted. "That may be so, but he's still killed tons and tons of people! He's a monster!"

"He is_ not!_ He wouldn't be on the Council if he was!"

"The Council?" Kaya asked, her eyes sharpening.

"Yes. It's like an advisory thing to the Dragon King. The King makes most of the final decisions but if enough people in the Council agree, then they override the king. Acnologia told me about this the year before he left."

"I see..." Kaya murmured. She appeared lost in thought for a moment. "You mentioned that he had a reason for killing humans. What was it?"

"That's, um, rather personal..." Ryuko muttered. "In fact, he specifically told me not to tell anyone..."

"Can you just tell me the rough thing?"

"Well... there was this other person that Acnologia took in, before me. This guy's village had been annihilated by a dark guild... kinda like me. Anyway, after this guy left Acnologia, he wandered around for a while, but he essentially became an outcast. Then this guy tried to assassinate him just cuz he was different... he killed the assassin.

"This guy started out very nice and kind, despite his magic, but then, he met this woman who he really liked—the two of them fell in love. And then... another assassin killed her. He was pretty much driven insane... Anyway Acnologia started hating humans for what they did to his 'son' after that."

"I see..." Kaya murmured. She hadn't heard anything like this from anyone.

"Anyway, then, after killing humans for a while and seeing humanity at its worst... Acnologia decided that all humans were like a plague that was engulfing the earth... so he set out to destroy them. Then he was _really _driven insane when his 'son' was supposedly killed... so he took out his anger on the world, destroying the country. Then he realized what he'd done or something, and retreated to the wilderness where he's been the last hundred or so years."

"That's a very... different perspective than what I've heard before," Kaya said. "Thank you."

Ryuko smiled at Kaya. "No problem." She paused before adding, "Now that this whole mess has been resolved, do you have anywhere to go?"

"No..." Kaya said. "Don't worry, I'll figure something out."

"Well," Ryuko began a little awkwardly, "there's this place called Fairy Tail. It's a guild... and, since you need a home, I was thinking that you could come with me there..."

Kaya looked away from Ryuko, and Ryuko thought for a moment that Kaya wasn't going to accept. Then, Kaya faced Ryuko. "Sure," she said softly.

Ryuko smiled to herself. Life was good. She'd found a new friend... and that friend was someone she could really talk to.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	13. Phantom Lord

A/N Sorry about the late update... but at least this chapter is a bit longer than normal. The next chapter will be out in a few days, if my new found inspiration doesn't desert me...

_**On to the story**_

A day or so had passed since Kaya had decided to become Ryuko's friend. Things had been peaceful in the camp... and Ryuko almost wished that she didn't have to leave. However, at this point, she was only waiting for Hekai to wake up before setting out for Fairy Tail. At first Ryuko had been worried about Saku and Myra and asked if they wanted to come to Fairy Tail, too, but they just said that they preferred being alone out in the wilderness.

Ryuko could certainly understand their sentiments. Sometimes she wished that she had never set foot in a city... yet all her nakama were there, so she couldn't exactly leave the city. Ryuko sighed, shaking her head to bring herself out of her internal musings before she poked herself with a needle.

Ryuko was currently repairing her leather armor, a task she'd been working on for most of the morning. It had gotten quite a few tears in it, and needed to be fixed. As she worked, Ryuko also pushed her magic power into it. It was a trick she had discovered a few years ago; she could use her magic power to make things tougher.

Saku was out hunting and Myra was embroidering another panther on her dress. Kaya was off somewhere; Ryuko had no idea where. Ryuko pulled the needle through the leather again, humming softly to herself. She stopped abruptly and swore as she pricked herself. She raised her finger to the light and saw a small drop of blood on it.

Ryuko grumbled to herself, knowing that blood on the armor might well ruin it. She squeezed her finger and more blood came out, running down her finger in a small crimson river. Ryuko sighed and put her finger in her mouth, sucking it. That was the easiest solution, and it was obviously not just something that she could ignore and hope that no blood got on the armor.

A minute or so later she removed her finger from her mouth and stared at it, frowning. There should have been a small gash on her finger, with as much blood as had come out of it in the first place. However, there was only smooth, unmarked skin.

Ryuko shrugged and ignored it, going back to her sewing. She supposed it was probably a perk of being a Dragon Slayer... now that she thought about it, she realized that she always did heal quickly after battles.

Then a yowl echoed through the camp. _"WHERE AM I?!" _Ryuko jumped and stabbed her finger again, more deeply. She yanked her hand away from the armor before any blood could get on it, and yanked out the needle. _That voice was Hekai's, _she thought. Myra was also getting up, a weary look on her face.

The two of them walked over to the tent where Hekai was. However, before they could get there, a small, heavily bandaged black cat came running out of the tent. He also had several pieces of string tangles up around his head and it looked like he had run into quite a few things before finally coming out.

"Why am I here?" Hekai muttered to himself. He noticed Myra and hid, screeching. She was an unknown and therefore potentially dangerous. Then he saw Ryuko and frowned. _She's the woman from before... _he thought.

"You're awake," Ryuko said, watching him. She turned her head to go look at the other woman. "Myra, stay back. I think you're scaring him."

"Whatever," Myra said. She headed back towards the fire pit where she had left her dress. Ryuko turned back to Hekai and looked at him intently. Hekai cautiously stepped forwards, but Ryuko made no move towards him. She was content to let the cat move at his own pace; he had obviously not had much human contact before.

"Why... why am I here?" Hekai asked after a moment. As he was talking he reached up to his head and pulled off the string, tossing it away irritably.

"Another wizard and I beat Shizako," Ryuko said.

"Shizako?" Hekai asked, losing a bit of his wariness in his eagerness to know what happened.

"The guy... who killed Firath." Hekai growled at that and narrowed his eyes. Despite all the bandages and the fact that he was small cat, he looked downright demonic. "After that we took you back here and bandaged you... we've been waiting for you to wake up."

"I see," Hekai said. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"A little over a day," Ryuko replied.

Hekai nodded then said, "While I thank you for the help, I have no intention of staying near humans for any longer than necessary. I will be going now." He turned to leave, apparently intending to go walk off into the forest.

"Wait!" Ryuko called after him.

Hekai looked back over his shoulder. "Yes?"

"Do you have a place to go?" Ryuko asked, concern evident in her voice. The cat was still injured, and his wounds could easily reopen.

Hekai glared at Ryuko. "What's it to you?" he snapped.

"I just... I'm worried about you."

"Well don't be. I don't need your worry."

"Perhaps not... but you have it. If you feel like you need a place to go... then come with me when I leave! Kaya is already going to come with me—she's the other one who defeated Firath's killer."

Hekai frowned at Ryuko for a moment before his gaze solidified into a glare. "I don't need your help!" He turned and walked into the forest.

"If you change your mind we'll be at the twisted oak tree stump by the main road at morning tomorrow!" she called after him. There was no reply.

Ryuko shrugged and walked back to Myra. She sat down and continued sewing.

_**The next morning**_

"It's time for us to part ways..." Kaya murmured as she nodded to Myra and Saku. She had a small pack on her back. "Farewell... and may we meet again."

"Bye, Kaya," Saku said. Myra quickly followed suit. Kaya smiled at them then turned and walked towards Ryuko. The two Dragon Slayers walked off towards the place where Ryuko had said they would wait for Hekai if he wanted to come. As they were walking, they began to talk.

"So what's the name of your dragon?" Ryuko asked. "You never told me that."

"Her name is Icyra," Kaya said.

"What does she look like?" Ryuko asked.

"She is almost completely white, except for her belly which is a pale ice-like blue. Her head is crowned with many horns and her eyes are dark blue." Kaya was silent again.

"Did your dragon leave you in X777 too?"

"Yes."

"Have you been wandering about this whole time?"  
"Yes."

"You don't like to talk much, do you?"

"Yes." There was a faint tinge of amusement in Kaya's tone. The two women lapsed into silence until they reached the tree. When they got there Hekai was waiting for them. He was scowling fiercely and had his arms crossed across his chest.

"I'm going with you," he said briefly. White wings shot out of his shoulders and he flew up to Ryuko's head and landed there.

"Hey! Get off of there!" Ryuko snapped. She reached up to Hekai and tried to pull him off. Hekai dug in his claws, making Ryuko yelp in pain and stop trying to pull Hekai off her head. "I said get off!"

Hekai merely smirked and stayed on Ryuko's head. She growled in annoyance but did nothing else. There was nothing else she could do, anyway. It would be better just to forget about it and start their trip back to Magnolia.

"In any case, shall we get going?" Ryuko asked.

Kaya nodded. The trio set off towards Magnolia.

_**A few days later**_

Ryuko, Kaya, and Hekai walked up towards the guild house. Ryuko rounded the corner and stopped short, too shocked to speak. Hekai appeared to be similarly shocked, although not as much as Ryuko.

The guild house was pierced with giant iron bars. It was completely destroyed. "Who... who would do this?" Ryuko whispered in shock. "Why?"

"Perhaps we should go inside?" Kaya suggested. Ryuko nodded mutely and the they made their way into the guild house.

They found their way down into the basement where the guild was gathered. "Why aren't we doing anything?!" Natsu was shouting. He appeared to be talking to Makarov while the rest of the guild was gathered around them. Team Natsu had probably just returned from a job.

"Master, I agree. We should fight back-"

"No!" Makarov shouted. "There is no need! No one was hurt!"

Ryuko pushed her way to the front of the throng. "What's going on?" she asked. "I just returned from my job and I see the guild house wrecked... what happened?"

Natsu turned to look at her and quickly explained that the guild Phantom Lord had attacked the guild house. He wanted to fight them because of what they had done to Fairy Tail. However, Mirajane and Makarov were saying that they wouldn't, as the attack had been in the middle of the night and no one had gotten hurt.

"I see..." Ryuko murmured. The somber moment was, of course, broken by Natsu.

"Why do you have a cat on your head?!" Natsu shouted, pointing to Hekai. He started to reach for the cat to pull him off, but Hekai growled and slashed at his hand.

"I'm staying up here!" he spat.

"Ah! A talking cat!" Happy screamed. He quickly flew behind Natsu, evidently hiding.

"You're a talking cat too, you know," Ryuko said.

"Aye!" Happy said, slowly coming out of hiding. "Would you like a fish?" he asked, presenting a fish to Hekai.

Hekai stared at the fish and then said shortly, "No. I don't like fish."

"You don't?!" Happy exclaimed, once again shocked. He walked over to the corner with his ears drooping.

"Hekai!" Ryuko scolded the black cat. "You're so mean!"

"It was a simple statement of fact!" Hekai protested. "I don't like fish!"

"But look how you made Happy feel..." Ryuko muttered.

Hekai just snorted and sat back down on Ryuko's head.

"You know, this whole thing doesn't seem very likely. Yes, no one was hurt, but your pride was. And besides, think of how long it's gonna take to rebuild the guild house," Kaya said quietly, stepping forwards.

Kaya received a few odd glances, but no one said anything. Introductions could wait until the present matter was taken care of.

"You're right," Mirajane said quietly. "The Magic Council forbids guilds to fight each other."

"But Phantom Lord already violated that!" Natsu protested. "Doesn't that mean we can fight back?! And since when have we cared for the Magic Council anyway! We're Fairy Tail!"  
"We are _not _attacking them and that is _final!_" Makarov snapped. The crowd slowly began to disperse, muttering things under their breath. They started to go do the things they normally dead, while Ryuko brought Kaya and Hekai up to Makarov.

"These two," Ryuko said, finally managing to pull Hekai off her head, "wish to join Fairy Tail."

"You've been recruiting, I see," Makarov said, chuckling. "Very well, where do you want your stamps?"

"Isn't there some kind of initiation or something?" Kaya asked, stepping forwards.

Makarov shrugged. "Well, you're with Ryuko, and it's not like our guild really cares about that sort of thing. Really, the only thing that keeps more people from joining is that they think we have a really scary initiation. So keep up the rumor, will you?"

Kaya blinked. "Okay," she said after a moment. "IN that case, I would like my stamp on my shoulder. Makarov nodded and marked her, before moving to Hekai and doing the same thing on his back. The two grinned; they were now members of Fairy Tail!

Ryuko yawned lazily. "Well, you two take a look around... I suggest finding an apartment, unless you're like me and like to live out in the woods." She paused before adding, "The way I do it is that I have a house in the woods and an apartment... even though I don't live in the apartment much, I still rent it just in case. As long as you do enough jobs, you'll have plenty of money with which do that if you wish."

Kaya nodded. "Well, I shall go take a look at the city," she said quietly. She turned and walked out the door. Ryuko noticed Makarov chuckling quietly to himself as he stared at Kaya. Ryuko blinked then shrugged. "Whatever," she muttered.

Ryuko walked over to a table and got into a conversation with Natsu.

_**A few hours later**_

"I am SO lost..." Kaya muttered. "This city is too confusing."

"Oh, hi!" a cheerful voice said from behind her. Kaya turned around to see a blue-haired girl smiling brightly at her. "You're the new arrival to Fairy Tail, right?"  
"Yes, I am," Kaya said calmly.

"I'm Levy!" the blue-haired girl said happily. "What's your name?"

"I'm Kaya," Kaya said. "Who are they?" she asked, pointing to the two men behind Levy.

"Oh, these are Jet and Droy," she said, gesturing at them. "They always follow me around... anyway, would you like to join Team Shadow Gear?"  
"What's Team Shadow Gear?" Kaya asked.

"Well, it's-" Levy was cut off as something flew into her stomach, knocking her against a nearby building. It was dark out by now and there was nobody around.

"Levy!" Jet and Droy shouted, running over to where Levy had fallen. She appeared to be unconscious.

Kaya's eyes widened as a black haired man ran through them and knocked both of them out. He had many piercings on his face and his hair was a shaggy mane.

Kaya ran towards the man, her eyes burning with anger. She might have just met Levy, Jet, and Droy, but she wasn't going to stand still while this guy attacked them.

"Fangs of the Ice Dragon!" Kaya shouted. An icicle formed at each of her wrists, and she slashed at the man with it. "You stay away from my nakama," she commanded while attacking.

The man easily dodged and leaped backwards. "Another Dragon Slayer, huh?" he said. He laughed. "I'm Gajeel," he said. "The Iron Dragon Slayer!" he put his hands around his mouth. "Roar of the Iron Dragon!" he shouted. A vortex or swirling iron shards shot towards Kaya.

_**Elsewhere**_

Lucy was walking along a road towards her apartment. Plue was walking beside her. It started to rain all of a sudden, and Lucy hurried towards her apartment.

"Drip drip drop," a voice said from behind her. Lucy turned around to see a woman with blue hair and a blue umbrella walking up to her. "I am Juvia, the Rain Woman," she said.

"Um... hello?" Lucy asked. "I'm Lucy."

Juvia nodded to her and continued past her. _That was strange, _Lucy thought.

"Oh," Juvia said. "I almost forgot what I was supposed to do." She turned around and raised a hand, pointing it at Lucy. "Water Lock!" she said. A large sphere of water came out of and shot towards Lucy. It surrounded her and Lucy desperately tried to get to her keys. She knew she couldn't hold her breath for long.

"What are you doing to her?!" an angry voice roared from somewhere. Lucy dimly saw through the water a black shape that crashed into Juvia. The sphere of water around Lucy disappeared and she saw a giant, black humanoid cat had just hit Juvia and disrupted her concentration.

The black cat walked over to her and helped her up. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Um, not to be rude or anything... but who are you?"

"I'm Hekai, a new member. I was exploring the city when I heard you scream.

Lucy blushed a bit. Had she really... screamed. Lucy's eyes widened and she yelled "Look out!"

Hekai turned around and saw the stream of water heading for him. He leaped out of the way while holding onto her and they landed in a heap on the paving stones. They quickly stood up and got into battle stances. Apparently this woman was their enemy.

_**Ryuko**_

"Hello there, Ryuko-sama!" a man said, appearing out of the earth in front of Ryuko. Ryuko started back a bit before controlling her surprise.

"What? Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Monsieur Sol!" he said. He had a monocle over one eye and his mustache was small and pointy.

"What do you want with me? And don't call me -sama!"

"I am here... to take you to the Phantom Lord headquarters!" he said grandly.

_Phantom Lord? Isn't that the guild... _"You're from Phantom lord?!" Ryuko shouted. The only thing keeping her from attacking was the fact that Makarov didn't want Fairy Tail to fight Phantom Lord.

"Are you going to come?" Sol asked.

"Are you crazy?" Ryuko demanded. "Of course not!"

"Non non non..." Sol said. "That will not do. Roche Concerto!" Sol raised his hands and the ground around Ryuko broke into pieces and shot towards her, pummeling her.

_**Kuro**_

Kuro was wandering around aimlessly, refusing to admit that he was lost. "Rargh..." he muttered. "Cities are... so... confusing!" After randomly turning down into an alley and seeing yet _another _dead end, Kuro growled in frustration and muttered, "Whatever."

He leaped onto the roof of a house and ran towards Fairy Tail across the rooftops. He never noticed the shadowy creature following him.

_**Phantom Lord**_

The door to the Phantom Lord guild house opened and three figures stepped inside. The first one was a pink-haired woman with a vicious grin. She wore a beautiful dress and had what appeared to be a fan case attached to her waist. "You called for us?" she asked.

"Yes... you, the Sakura Trio are just what I need..." Master Jose said. "You see... there is a certain... individual I have an... interest in. I need you three to get him and bring him here..."

"What does this individual look like?" a second woman asked, stepping forwards into the light. She wore a full set of plate mail and her long, red hair was neatly tied back. She had no helmet. A large broadsword was strapped across her back.

Jose chuckled. These three would be just what he needed... The Sakura Trio was a famous group of mercenaries. What made them so effective was how they worked... one of them provided the muscle, one of them came up with the plans, and one of them had the skills of a master thief. Of course, all three were also extremely strong fighters.

"This is what he looks like..." Jose said. The three women payed close attention, and when the description was done, they turned and disappeared into the night.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	14. Kidnapped

A/N Quick update for everyone, but the next chapter probably won't come out so quickly. Anyway, if anyone ever tells you that Ryuko is a Mary Sue you can cite this chapter as evidence against that...

_**Kuro**_

Kuro stopped suddenly. Something felt... wrong. He felt the back of his neck prickling and he spun around, his keen eyes scanning the buildings. "Who's there?!" he yelled, unsheathing the broadsword that he had bought a few days ago. He didn't really know how to use it, but it looked intimidating. People were less likely to fight him if he had a giant broadsword that he could hold in one hand.

"You sssseee me, yess, yesss!" a hissing voice said. A black... thing came out from the shadows. It looked a bit like a cross between a bat and a cat. It had leathery, bat-like wings and the body of a cat with matted fur. It had three snake-like heads. They were all black, but the middle head had red eyes, the right head had green eyes, and the left head had yellow eyes.

Kuro watched the thing as it walked forwards towards him. It was about as big as a small panther, though it was hard to tell as it was constantly moving, almost flowing as it looked like a piece of the shadows. Kuro backed up and held his broadsword in front of him. "Who are you? _What _are you?"

"I'm Ssslethsssa..." the middle head hissed. Kuro noticed that it had a single horn in the middle of its head, unlike the others.

"I'm Yerusssa," the left head hissed. It had a different accent from the first.

"And I'm... Desarrr," the right head growled. Its voice was more like that of a cats, with a strange growling undertone.

"We arrre herrre... to killl you!" the three heads screamed as one. The creature leaped forwards towards Kuro and he quickly raised his broadsword to block. Slethsa spat venom at him and Kuro had to leap aside to avoid being burned.

_Stupid snakes... _Kuro growled. _Mangy flies! Stop bothering me! _"Leave now and I'll spare your life!" Kuro growled in the most threatening tone he could muster.

"He sssaysss he'll leave usss alive..." Slethsa said in a mocking tone.

"What do you think? Ssshould we leave him?" Yerusa hissed.

"No way... what arrre you, a bunch of cowards? That is not the command!" Desar spat. The head laughed, it's green eyes showing infinite amusement.

"Fine then, you asked for it!" Kuro growled. He had already decided how he was going to fight, although it had taken a bit of thinking. This fight annoyed him and he wanted to finish it as soon as possible. Kuro tossed the broadsword aside; he wouldn't need it. "Take Over: Dragon Soul!" Kuro screamed.

_**Kaya**_

Kaya's eyes widened, seeing the attack that came rushing towards her. "Shell of the Ice Dragon," she said. Ice spread out from her feet then rose into the air, creating a protective shell of ice around her.

Kaya waited patiently for Gajeel to stop attacking, confident that he would be unable to break through her shell. Then she saw cracks beginning to spiderweb through the ice and her eyes widened in shock. Her ice was really strong; even fire couldn't melt it. She managed to leap out of the way just as her shell broke and tons of iron shards rushed towards her.

"Quick Slash of the Ice Dragon," Kaya said. She raised two fingers and crooked them at her opponent. A piece of ice shot out of each one directly towards Gajeel.

"Club of the Iron Dragon!" Gajeel yelled, transforming his arm into an iron club. He blocked her attack with it and the pieces of ice broke off harmlessly against it. Kaya stared at him, desperation surfacing in her eyes for the first time. He seemed to be invulnerable against her attacks. Kaya pulled back her head, preparing one of her stronger attacks.

"Roar of the Ice Dragon!" she shouted, spitting ice shards towards Gajeel.

"Roar of the Iron Dragon!" Gajeel said. The iron and ice collided, pushing against eachother for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, the iron broke through the ice and came rushing towards Kaya. When the attack finally stopped, Kaya was laying in a bloody heap. Gajeel walked past her, ignoring her limp form. He couldn't care less that she was hurt; she was no longer attacking him and that was all that mattered. Now, he could do what he had been going to do before the woman had interrupted him.

_**Ryuko**_

The rocks cleared to see Ryuko with two black wings that she had folded in front of herself. However that had not protected her back and she staggered forwards slightly from the force of the attack. The wings disappeared and Ryuko glared at Sol. "You want to fight, huh?' she growled. "Flight of the Dark Dragon!"

Ryukos hot into the air as soon as her wings appeared. If she was right, this man was an earth mage and could not follow her into the air. After a few minutes and Sol has still not gone after her, Ryuko was quite confident this was the case. However, that didn't mean Sol didn't have long distance attacks.

"Pilier de la Terre!*" Sol raised his hands and a giant spear like protrusion erupted out of the earth, shooting straight towards Ryuko. She easily dodged and decided to taunt the earth mage. It always made it easier to win when your opponent got angry.

"Was that supposed to _hit _me?" Ryuko called down tauntingly. Sol suddenly seemed to hear something, for he suddenly melted into the earth, disappearing again. However, the pillar remained. Ryuko flew back down to the ground and lightly landed, wondering what that had been about. Weren't you not supposed to leave a fight when the fight's outcome was still uncertain?

Ryuko sighed. _Whatever, _she thought. _Might as well head back to the guild house. _Ryuko turned and started to head towards there when a woman with red hair and a full set of plate mail appeared in front of Ryuko. She wore a vicious grin. "You have been marked for capture," she said.

"What? Capture? What are you talking about?"snapped Ryuko. She was feeling kind of annoyed at this point. It seemed like this unknown woman was going to randomly attack her as well.

"Yes," a second woman said, stepping out from an alley. She had long pink hair and was wearing a red dress embroidered with golden flowers. A fan case was attached to her waste.

"We will take you in," a third voice said. A young woman, no more than fifteen, stepped out from a different direction. She had her blond hair tied back in a long ponytail and she wore nodescript clothes that would blend in well. She did not appear to have any weapons.

"You can come quietly..." the first woman said. "Or we can take you by force. You decide."

"Why would I 'come quietly?' I don't even know what you're talking about or who you are!"

"We are the Sakura Trio," the three women said as one. "And we have been hired to capture you."

_The Sakura Trio? The famous mercenary group? Then... the red-haired woman must be Sanko, the pink-haired woman is probably Sakura, and the blond-haired woman is Tania. But why are they after me... who would hire them? Phantom Lord! They have to be working for Phantom Lord! _Ryuko narrowed her eyes and said quietly, "Bring it on."

Sanko grinned and unsheathed her broadsword. Sakura snapped her fan open and pulled a second fan out of somewhere. Both of the fans appeared to be made of red silk. Tania shrank back into the shadows. Ryuko remembered that Tania was the assassin of the trio.

Sanko suddenly leaped towards Ryuko, slashing down with her broadsword. Ryuko dodged and the broadsword crashed into the ground. She dodged as a dagger flew towards Ryuko from the shadows; evidently Tania was also taking part in the fight. Ryuko didn't look behind her, believing that as she had dodged the attack, it was over. However, the dagger came back around and slashed at her again. Ryuko just barely dodged it as it whistled by her face. Two more daggers joined the first one and they were now chasing Ryuko around.

"Yuwaeru!^" Sanko shouted. Rope shot out of the end of the broadsword towards Ryuko. Ryuko didn't notice it due to the fact that she was trying to dodge the daggers. The rope rapped around her torso, securing her arms to her sides.

_Crap! _Ryuko thought. Thinking quickly, she forced her magic out of her torso in an impromptu move to try and get the rope off. It worked... but then she found herself with five daggers touching her throat.

Ryuko gulped, trying to think of any way that she could get out of this situation... any flaw in how her enemies were attacking her... some way to escape.. there must be a way.

"Wana ni Kakeru!1" Rope shot out of Sanko's broadsword again and tied her legs together. The moment that rope touched her, Ryuko felt her contact with her magic vanish. Ryuko's eyes widened as she felt a barrier blocking her from reaching her magic. She tried to break it, pushing with all her might, but it didn't budge a bit.

Then she felt a pain at the back of her skull and she felt herself lose consciousness.

_**Hekai & Lucy**_

Hekai snarled and lunged towards Juvia, his claws unsheathed. "Water Slicer!" Juvia yelled. Thin arcs of water materialized and shot towards Hekai. He dodged easily and the arcs made deep gouges in the ground.

Hekai slashed at Juvia, but his claws caught only water.

"Juvia's body is made of water," Juvia said dispassionately. She punched Hekai in the chest with a water-surrounded fist. Hekai was thrown through the air and crashed into a nearby tree.

"Water, huh?" Lucy said. She raised a golden key and then thrust it into a nearby puddle. "Open, Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!" A mermaid appeared holding a vase.

"You summoned me in a puddle! A puddle!" Aquarius yelled at Lucy.

"I'm sorry!" Lucy squeaked. "Just attack her!" Lucy pointed to Juvia.

"Tch," Aquarius said. She started to gather water in her vase. "Don't summon me for a few weeks; I'm gonna be on a date with my _boyfriend." _

"You don't have to rub it in... Lucy muttered. Aquarius always managed to mention her boyfriend every single time Lucy summoned her. However, the mermaid was Lucy's most powerful spirit. At that moment, water erupted out of Aquarius' vase and swept Hekai, Juvia, and Lucy through the streets, finally smashing them into an empty warehouse. Really, it was a wonder that nobody had woken up yet, with all the noise they were making.

Juvia stood up a bit shakily, then said, "That attack will not work on Juvia." Hekai, however, appeared to be knocked out as he was face-down on the floor and wasn't moving. After a few moments he reverted to his small form.

"Water Lock!" Juvia said, pointing her umbrella at Lucy. Lucy was once again surrounded by the orb of water. She tried to fight her way out but couldn't and felt herself slipping into unconsciousness.

Juvia took the keys from Lucy's waist and dropped them on the floor before leaving. She didn't look back.

_**Kuro**_

A black aura surrounded Kuro and giant, black magic circle appeared overhead. When the aura disappeared Kuro was revealed as an entirely different creature. He was still roughly humanoid, but his whole body was covered in black scales and he only wore tattered bits of what he had on before. His tail was like a powerful whip, with two vicious barbs on the end. His head was that of a dragons, with pure white, pupiless eyes and rows upon rows of sharp teeth in his mouth. He had thick eye ridges that ended in two curving horns. His opponent stared at him in shock, all three heads struck speechless by the evident power of Dragon Soul.

Kuro raised his head and roared. Two powerful black, leathery wings appeared attached to his shoulders. He stretched them out and roared again.

The white eyes narrowed and target the creature in front of him. He spat a dark, murky vortex at it and it leaped into the air, soaring into the sky in order to dodge. Kuro shot up after it without a second thought.

He slashed at Yerusa with powerful claws, intending to rip the head off. Yerusa eaisly dodged and Slethsa spat a stream of venom at him. Kuro shielded his face with his wings and when the stream stopped, there was no visible effect.

Desar opened his mouth and spat a stream of fire at Kuro. Kuro neatly dodged and slashed at the creature with his tail. It dodged and shot over him, dropping down onto his body, slashing out with it's claws. Kuro twisted to the side, making the creature miss. He gripped it with his tail and threw it towards the ground.

The monster twisted around in midair and regained control. It came flying at Kuro again. Yerusa opened her mouth and coughed, sending a dense ball of earth at Kuro. Kuro caught it with one of his clawed hands and squeezed it to bits. Then he dove towards the creature, slashing out with his talons.

The creature dodged, spitting earth, fire, and venom at him as it did so. Kuro managed to block all the attacks with his wings and he shot towards the creature again, claws extended. It dodged, but Kuro managed to rake his claws across its back.

"That'sss ssso mean, yesss, yess!" Slethsa said in annoyance. All three heads reared back and spat a combined stream of earth, fire, and venom at him. Kuro blocked, but the force of the attack pushed him towards the ground at an extremely fast rate. He snapped his wings open and tiwsted out of the way of the attack. It hit the edge of his wing and Kuro was sent spinning through the air. He eventually crashed into the ground.

"It'sss time for usss to go, yesss, yesss," Slethsa hissed. "It wasss fun playing. Let'sss do it again."

Kuro got up and leaped towards the creature, but its small form had already vanished into the night. Kuro growled in annoyance and landed on the ground, making his Take Over form disappear.

_**Far away on Tenrou Island**_

Zeref sat against a tree, facing the night sky. He thought he had just felt something... familiar. Something that reminded him of the days when he hadn't been burdened with his curse... when he had a friend.

_No... there's no way, _he thought. _Even dragons aren't immortal... he would be dead by now. _Despite the fact that he knew it was impossible that his old friend was still alive, he still looked west where he had, for just a moment, felt that familiar power.

_*Earth Pillar_

_^Bind_

_1__Esnare_

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	15. Kuro vs Totomaru

A/N I will, for the most part, be skipping battles and other events that completely follow canon... normally I'll give a short summary of it, just to remind people about what happened, but I am not going to bother making a written version of Fairy Tail. :P

_**Morning**_

Natsu was walking to the guild house when she saw it. Three figures, chained to a tree. "No..." he whispered. Levy, Jet, and Droy were all unconscious. Kaya was in an unconscious heap nearby. She had obviously tried to protect the trio but failed.

Happy was simply shocked, he couldn't say anything at all. "We have to tell the Master," Natsu said.

"Aye," Happy said without his usual cheerfulness. He picked up Natsu and flew with him to the guild hall.

_**A few minutes later**_

The guild was all gathered around where the four guild members had been knocked unconscious. Levy, Jet, and Droy had been taken down carefully. Makarov looked up from where he was examining Kaya, his eyes filled with anger. "They are signed with the Phantom Lord mark!" he snarled.

The guild was shocked for a moment before their eyes filled with rage. No one, _no one _hurt a member of Fairy Tail and got away with it!

"This is something I will not forgive!" Makarov yelled. "We're taking these four to the infirmary... and then we're attacking Phantom Lord!" The guild roared its approval.

_**Two days later**_

Ryuko blinked awake. "Where... am I?" she murmured. She looked around and saw that she was in a cave-like room. Her wrists were bound together behind her back. The room was empty other than for her. Ryuko managed to sit up and lean against the wall. She tried to reach for her magic but she was still blocked.

Ryuko growled under her breath as she searched the room for some kind of object that she could use to cut the rope. Unfortunately, there was nothing of the sort.

The floor lurched and Ryuko tumbled to one side. It moved again in an odd rhythm, almost like if the cave she was in was walking... but no, that was impossible. There was no way a cave would walk... even with magic, is was impossible. Well, maybe not impossible, but highly unlikely.

Ryuko tried to break the rope by pulling her wrists apart. It didn't work; Ryuko was just not strong enough. She sighed. It appeared that she would have to lie here until someone came for her. She hoped that Fairy Tail would come for her... what an odd thing, to rely on another person. For the majority of her life after Acnologia left her, she had always been alone. She'd never had another person to depend on... but now she was hoping her guild would come and rescue her. Ryuko chuckled at that. "Things change so quickly..." she murmured to the empty cave.

_**Kuro**_

Kuro stood with the rest of the guild members gaping at the giant moving house that was walking through the sea towards them. _Well... _he thought. _Haven't seen that one before. _Lucy had been found by Natsu the day before and was now hiding in a warehouse. Mirajane had taken the place of Lucy using Transformation Magic.

However, Ryuko had not been found yet. It had been noticed that she was missing during the first day, but search parties had not encountered her. And now they had bigger things to worry about—like the giant, moving house that appeared to be Phantom Lord's headquarters. There was also this giant cannon thing in the front that Kuro was worried about.

As Kuro was thinking, the house stopped moving. The cannon slowly turned until it was aimed at the Fairy Tail members and black and purple energy started to gather at the mouth. "It's gonna shoot!" Kuro yelled. He didn't know how powerful the cannon actually was but it was pretty big and size=power after all... or something like that.

Erza ran in front of the rest of the guild. "No!" Mirajane shouted. "Erza!"

Erza's eyes were filled with nothing but determination to stop the cannon from hitting her nakama. "Requip!" she shouted. "Admantine Armor!" Her clothes changed into a full set of plate mail. Two giant shields were attached to each of her arms. She brought the shields together and a giant magic circle appeared in front of her.

The cannon fired.

Erza screamed as she fought against the force of the cannon, her armor's defensive magic holding up against the might of the most powerful magical weapon Phantom Lord had. Kuro winced, expecting the cannon to break through her armor at any time now... but Erza held.

The force of the cannon eventually broke through, but Erza's armor stopped enough of it that she was only knocked unconscious. Her guild mates crowded around her then Mirajane broke through the crowd and said quietly, "Take her over to the side. She is not hurt; only magically exhausted."

Fairy Tail did as she said and Kuro walked up to Mirajane to talk to her. "If they fire that again I might be able to stop it," he said.

"Really?" Mirajane asked, staring at him wide-eyed. "What magic do you use anyway?"

"Take Over magic," Kuro replied. "Anyway, shouldn't we do something about stopping that cannon from firing again in the first place?"

Mirajane nodded and then raised her voice. "Everyone! If I remember correctly that cannon has a fifteen-minute delay! We need to send a group of wizards in to stop it!"

"I'll go!" Natsu volunteered immediately. Gray, Happy, and Elfman also volunteered. After a moment Kuro also stepped forwards.

"I shall go as well. And don't worry, my Take Over form as wings so I can fly down here and stop it if it fires," Kuro said.

Mirajane nodded. Gray created a bridge made out of ice and the five Fairy Tail members ran towards the Phantom Lord headquarters.

Soon the four reached the cannon. Kuro narrowed his eyes, then said, "I'll see if I can destroy the cannon from the inside. You four go on in." The other mages nodded after a moment, although Natsu was the fastest. He was more likely to find a fight inside the giant building.

Kuro drew his broadsword and brought it down on the cannon with all his strength. To his disappointment, the broadsword broke and half of it went flying down towards the ground. Kuro sighed and dropped the rest. It was unlikely he'd ever become very skilled with it anyway.

Kuro started to manually punch the cannon, but soon stopped due to the fact that he did not appear to be getting anywhere. Kuro shrugged. He ran inside the cannon, hoping that he would find the thing that powered it.

Before long, Kuro came to a giant lacrima at the edge of the cannon. _So this is what powers it, huh, _Kuro thought. _I doubt it's unguarded... _Kuro was correct as he saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. Kuro automatically dodged the attack as a katana whistled through he space he had been previously.

"I am Totomaru," the man said. He had his black and white hair tied up at the back of his head. He wore an orange robe and had an odd black band across his face.

"Move aside," Kuro commanded. "If you do not stop me then I will not kill you."

Totomaru smirked. "Well, I can't let you get to that lacrima! Blue Fire!" Blue fire swirling around Totomaru's fists and he hurled it at Kuro. Kuro easily dodged and he felt the numbing cold of the fire as it passed him.

_Cold fire, _Kuro thought. _I wonder how he did that... I'd better end this quickly. _"Take Over: Dragon Soul!" Kuro shouted. A black aura sprang up around him and Totomaru backed away. He got the feeling that this man in front of him was far more powerful than he seemed. The aura dissipated, leaving behind a humanoid-looking dragon. The dragon roared and lunged towards the lacrima, spitting a dark vortex of some kind of shadows at it as he did so.

"Red Fire!" Totomaru shouted, hurling bolts of red fire at Kuro. The dragon easily dodged and leaped forwards. Totomaru blocked the dragon's claws with his katana, though his arms trembled from the strain. He didn't see Kuro's tail, which lashed around and hit him from behind.

The fire mage stood up again and shouted the name of his ultimate attack. "Rainbow Fire!" Kuro growled as he blocked the attack, splitting it open with only a little effort.

_ It's almost time for the cannon to fire... _he thought. _I better hurry up. _Kuro pulled back his clawed hands and twin balls of dark energy began charging in them. "Dragon Beam!" he shouted. A black beam erupted from each of his hands and shot towards Totomaru. The fire mage dodged, but Kuro was able to get to the lacrima. He slammed his claws down onto it and it split into pieces.

Kuro changed back to his human form and walked past Totomaru, not even bothering to check if his opponent was still alive.

_**Outside**_

While Kuro was fighting Totomaru, shades began boiling out of the Phantom Lord headquarters. They darted overhead, gathering slowly. Then they attacked. The shades appeared to be indestructible, as no one could harm them. However, they had no trouble harming the Fairy Tail members.

Slowly, they began to fall... and Jupiter continued charging. When it was nearly at the fifteen-minute limit, the black energy gathering at the tip of the cannon suddenly vanished.

However, the fight was by no means over. The shades retreated suddenly, returning to the headquarters where they swarmed around it like a boiling mass. The headquarters suddenly started to change.

It stood up on two of the "legs" that were keeping it aloft in the first place and changed into a more humanoid shape. It now had two "arms" and a head, although they were really rough and blocky. A huge magic circle started to form in front of it. It was being built very, very slowly.

"That's... that's Abyss Break!" Mirajane gasped.

"What's that?" Hekai asked. He had snuck into the guild after he had decided that he was healed enough to fight.

Mirajane turned around to look at him accusingly. She may currently look like Lucy, but there was no mistaking her for the blond. "You are supposed to be in the infirmary!" she said. They had found Hekai unconscious in the warehouse the day before and immediately started to treat his wounds. Of course, Hekai didn't care that he was still wounded and still had bandages wrapped around him. Heck, he had never fully healed from that fight with Shizako, either. As long as he could fight, Hekai was happy.

"Yes, well, I figured I should come help out. So what's Abyss Break?" Hekai asked again.

"It is a very powerful magic. If it is cast it will definitely wipe out Magnolia... and probably quite a bit of the surrounding countryside. And unlike the magical cannon they were using before, there is no way we will be able to stop it," Mirajane replied. "I am going to try something."

Hekai's eyes widened as he saw what she intended. "No, don't!" Hekai protested.

Mirajane turned back to him and smiled. "Do not worry, i will be fine." Then she turned back around and faced the giant robot. "Take me!" she yelled. "I am Lucy Heartfilia! Please take me and leave my nakama alone!"

The voice of Jose replied, booming across the gathered Fairy Tail members. "Fool! Did you think I would be deceived by that? I know you are not Lucy Heartfilia! Now give me the real Lucy or I will fire Abyss Break!"

Mirajane looked down, tears starting to build in her eyes. "I... I couldn't do it.." she whispered.

"Hey, Mirajane, this isn't over yet. If the guild members we have inside can stop the casting process it won't fire," Cana said, walking up to stand beside Mirajane. She didn't like to see a fellow guild member so miserable.

"You're right," Mirajane said. "I think we have about ten minutes before Abyss Break fires... All we can do is hope.." At that point the shades attacked again. Hekai saw that whenever they touched someone they seemed to drain the magic power out of them.

"I should go help them out... not that they need it, with all of them, but I can't do anything here. All my attacks are physical," Hekai said. White wings sprouted from his back and he shot towards the castle before Mirajane or anyone else could protest.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Cana said while fighting off shades. "After all, Elfman, Natsu, Happy, Kuro, and Gray are all in there! They will stop Abyss Break for sure."

"You're right," Mirajane said.

_**Hekai**_

Hekai flew towards the castle as quickly as he could. He knew that he should try to find one of the others... he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to beat a strong Phantom Lord wizard. He remembered seeing Kuro go into the cannon, so he headed towards there.

He went in through the cannon barrel and came out in a small room. About half a broken lacrima was floating in the air while the other half littered the floor in the form of many small shards. There were several doors and, after a moment, Hekai took the right door, hoping that he would find someone at least.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko continued to try and break through the shield that surrounded her magic. She would not give up no matter what! At last she seemed to break a tiny amount of it. She was able to sense her magic again, although not to draw upon it. And what she sensed was that her magic power was slowly being drawn out of her.

Ryuko frowned. That should not be happening... unfortunately with the shield there, she couldn't do anything about it. She would have to just keep trying to break through and hope that she had enough willpower to do it.

_**Kuro**_

Kuro ran through the corridors of the strange walking house. A minute or so ago he had noticed that the house had shuddered a bit, as if it had been hit by something very powerful, but nothing else happened after that. Kuro wondered what was going on outside... but he squashed that thought and continued upwards.

He rounded a corner and saw a large, iron door at the end of the corridor. There was a young girl standing by the door who was muttering something under her breath. Kuro shrugged, he wasn't one to go easy on anyone if they were his enemy, even if they were a kid.

He charged towards the kid. After all, the fact that there was a guard meant there was something important behind the door, didn't it?

_**Outside**_

"Look!" Alzack shouted while reloading his gun. "The casting of Abyss Break is slowing down!The team we sent in must be doing something to stop it!"

The Fairy Tail members looked up at the giant magic circle and saw that, yes, it was in fact slowing down. They cheered and returned to the fight with renewed vigor.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	16. Battle of the Dragons

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko glared at the steel door that she had finally made her way over to. She had finally managed to get up on her feet and had gone searching the cave for the entrance. She found the door and now she was rather angry at it. _Why did there have to be a door? _She thought. _It's not like it even makes sense for there to be a door in a cave._

Ryuko sighed. At least she was on her feet now. Then her eyes widened as she got an idea. The door didn't mesh perfectly with the stone and there was a sharp edge at one spot along the side. Ryuko grinned and walked over to it. Maybe she would get out of this prison soon after all!

_**Kuro**_

Kuro charged towards the girl, moving as quickly as he could so as not to give her a chance to react. He kicked at her head, however, she stopped it with a single raised arm. Kuro stared at her wide-eyed, no one had ever been able to stop his kick so effortlessly before.

Kuro leaped backwards and realized that this really would be a fight. He got into a defensive stance and waited for her attack. After a moment, the girl leaped towards him, her small form almost disappearing as she attacked. Kuro dodged her kick and leaped out of the way as she struck the wall. Her kick caused giant cracks to form in the wall before a large section of it collapsed.

Kuro narrowed his eyes and then charged again. However, he could not hit the girl. She was far too fast for him. His kicks found only air, and while she could not hit him often, she could still hit him. Kuro staggered forwards as her kick slammed into his back again. He spun around and lashed out with his hand, but it contacted nothing but air.

_I don't want to use it again! _Kuro thought angrily. He should not have to transform in every single fight. However, as much as he hated to admit it to himself, he was in fact losing. He had to wonder what had happened to this girl to make her so fast, though.

Kuro growled and got into an offensive stance. "Dragon Soul!" he roared.

The girl saw this and stopped her attack, grinning. "Seems like this will be fun after all," she said, her green cat-like eyes twinkling with mischief. "Take Over: Dragon Soul!" A pure white aura surrounded her as her form twisted and changed, even as Kuro's did the same.

The auras slowly faded and their forms were revealed. The girl's form was that of a young dragon with pure white scales. She was slender and had a body built for speed, rather like that of a cheetah's. Slender horns adorned her narrow, snake-like head. Inquisitive green eyes peered out from under slender eye ridges.

Two wings were neatly folded on each side of her body. One pair of them was a longer one. It looked rather like an arm with extended fingers and webbing between the fingers. There was also a bit of webbing coming out of her arm, but not much. The second pair of wings were just the right size and shape to fill in that gap, as well as overlap with the first pair slightly.

The young dragon thumped down to the ground lightly on delicate forelegs. Despite their beautiful appearance, they were designed for killing, with five narrow claws that were arranged on her foot almost like a human hand.

She raised her head and roared, screaming supremacy over the sky. "I am Kirana!" she screamed.

Kuro raised his own draconic head and answered Kirana's roar with his own. "I am Kuro!" he cried. The two dragons stared at each other, each wishing to prove their might. Then Kuro crouched on the ground and shot upwards at the ceiling. He easily broke through and shot into the open air above the robot guild house. He raised his head and roared loudly.

Kirana followed him, streaking upwards extremely quickly. The two dragons faced each other in the air. They roared and lunged towards each other.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko had, perhaps sawed through the ropes about halfway when she heard an angry roar from outside the door. This was soon followed by another roar. Then there was a crashing noise, as if something had just smashed through a layer of stone.

_Is their a fight going on outside the door? _Ryuko wondered. The seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly as Ryuko sawed through the ropes that bound her hands together.

The last thread snapped and, as the ropes fell off her hands, Ryuko was suddenly able to get to her magic power again. She grinned and punched the door with the power of her magic behind it. A huge dent was made in the door. However, it did not break. Ryuko frowned and punched it again. She could tell this would take a bit.

_**Below**_

A loud roar echoed over the city of Magnolia. The shades hesitated, almost fearful. Then they turned and fled. The exhausted Fairy Tail members were unsure why this had happened, but they were willing to take what they could get. Abyss Break was still being cast, although very slowly now. The circle was almost complete, too. If it wasn't stopped soon, then Magnolia would certainly be obliterated.

Then another roar broke through the air. This one was almost... graceful. Bisca looked up to see two dragons facing each other over the guild house. One of them was a giant, black, almost humanoid dragon. The other one was a graceful white creature. They were circling each other and then the white dragon seemed to disappear before reappearing behind the black dragon.

_**Natsu**_

_**(A/N: the fight between Natsu and Gajeel has already happened)**_

Natsu stared up at the sky, shock written all over his face. He was laying on his back in the middle of blasted wreckage. Gajeel was laying nearby, similarly unable to move. They were both staring at the two dragons fighting overhead.

Now the only question was, were they true dragons? Or were they wizards who somehow managed to look like dragons due to their magic...

_**Kirana**_

Kirana shot through the air, spitting streams of silver acid at her opponent. She easily dodged a flick of her enemy's tail and almost contemptuously clawed him in the back. However, her claws made no mark on Kuro's scales.

Kirana growled in anger. Her green eyes flared and she dove towards her opponent once more, dodged his claws... and slammed into his stomach before darting away. Kuro was thrown towards the ground where the rest of his guild was.

Kuro fell through the air, spiraling out of control. He roared angrily and managed to regain control over his wings inches from the ground. He shot into the air after Kirana, ignoring his gaping guild mates. Kuro pulled back his head and spat black energy at Kirana. The silver dragon met it with a stream of her own.

Kuro leaped to the side and the silver acid shot through the space where he'd been a moment before. Things were starting to look bad...

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko stopped punching the door as she remembered something important. Something was feeding off her magic! She felt for her core and soon found the leak. With a thought, she cut off the stream and pulled her magic back within herself. Then she returned to punching the door.

Finally, the door was thrown off it's hinges and it shot down the corridor, slamming into the wall with a great crash. Ryuko walked out and saw a giant hole in the ceiling. _Is that where the people who were fighting here before went? _She wondered. Ryuko could see the sky through the gap. _Well, it will be the easiest way to get out of her. _

"Flight of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko leaped into the air. She tore through the gap... and stopped short when she saw the dueling dragons. One was black and one was white. They were like total opposites. One of them was extremely powerful, but slow. The other one wasn't as powerful, but she was rather fast.

Ryuko could immediately tell that the black one was Kuro. How she knew she couldn't say; perhaps it was because their auras were similar.

It was immediately obvious that Kuro needed help against his opponent. However, she didn't know what she could do... then she grinned as she thought of something...

_**Abyss Break...**_

The immense magic circle that had been forming in front of Phantom Lord's headquarters suddenly vanished as the last power source it had was abruptly cut off. Below, the Fairy Tail members rejoiced. Above, Jose was angry enough to attack himself if Kirana couldn't win her fight...

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko shot towards the air towards Kuro. She had come up with a plan to defeat Kirana. The Dragon Slayer landed lightly on Kuro's back. Kuro was startled and nearly lost control of his wings when the sudden weight descended on his back.

"Calm down, it's me," Ryuko said.

"Good, you're safe," Kuro said. "Now get out of here."

"No. I'm going to help you defeat her."

"But-"

"No buts! I have a plan to win against her!"

Kuro listened to Ryuko's plan and nodded. Ryuko grinned and lightly crouched on Kuro's shoulders. Her wings and tail were still activated.

Kirana suddenly appeared behind Ryuko and slashed at the Dragon Slayer with her claws. Ryuko leaped off Kuro's back, falling through the air a short time before extending her wings and darting behind Kirana. Kuro spat dark energy at Kirana, forcing her to dodge.

Ryuko dropped onto Kirana's back when the dragon was distracted. Kirana roared in rage when she realized what was going on. She shook herself furiously, trying to dislodge the human on her back. However, Ryuko held on tightly enough that she wasn't shaken loose.

Ryuko raised one hand and aimed it towards Kirana's head. Ryuko's plan involved her being able to cast a spell she'd never cast before and have it work the first time. Dragon Slayer magic was tricky enough that that was rather... unlikely.

A band of dark energy shot out of Ryuko's hand and wrapped around Kirana's face. The dragon roared in rage and clawed at her face, trying to dislodge the blindfold. Kuro shot up behind Kirana and lashed out with his tail.

Ryuko leaped off the dragon and back into the air as Kirana was thrown through the air into the ground. Kirana got to her feet and growled in anger. She might not be able to see Kuro, but that didn't mean she would lose this fight!

A rush of air alerted the white dragon to an attack and she leaped out of the way just in time. Kuro's powerful claws slammed into the roof of the headquarters, causing it to shake slightly.

Kuro pulled his head back, ready to do what Ryuko had suggested. On Kuro's back, Ryuko mimicked the motion.

"Unison Raid!" they yelled together.

"Roar of the Dark Dragon/Raging Vortex!" Dark energy shot from both their mouths towards Kirana. The blow struck and the other dragon was slammed into the immense robot building by the power of the attack.

Kuro slowly landed on the top of the building. Ryuko got off his back and collapsed onto the battered remains of the roof, completely exhausted by the effort it took to use a completely new spell and cast a Unison Raid.

Kuro changed back into his human form and sat down, sighing. He briefly felt a strange magic wash over him. It was almost as if the magic couldn't decide whether he was an enemy or not before finally deciding he was a friend and continuing onwards.

Kuro looked over to Ryuko to see that she had passed out. After picking up Ryuko, Kuro went back into the giant guild house and started making his way down to the ground.

_**A day later**_

Ryuko opened her eyes and looked around. She appeared to be in a small shack. Kuro was sleeping nearby on a wooden chair. Ryuko was laying on the only bed in the room. This was probably where Kuro lived.

Ryuko slowly got up, wincing at the twinges of pain from various muscles. She wondered why she was here, instead of in the guild infirmary. Had something else happened to the guild house?

Ryuko quietly slid out of bed, trying not to wake Kuro. However, her plan failed. "You should be in bed," Kuro said without opening his eyes. "You might not have been injured much physically, but you magically exhausted yourself."

Ryuko frowned at him then asked, "How long has it been?"

"A little under a day," Kuro replied.

"Then I should be fine to move about. I just shouldn't use my magic too much."

Kuro glared at her for a moment then sighed. "Fine, whatever."

"So, what happened after we beat Kirana?" Ryuko asked.

"Jose showed up, having beaten Erza. He was gonna kill us all, since we were mostly out of magic power from fighting his minions. Makarov showed up, cast Fairy Law, and defeated Jose and Phantom Lord."

"I see," Ryuko said. The two of them sat in silence for a moment, before Ryuko broke the silence by asking what had happened to Levy, Jet, Droy, and Kaya.

"They're fine," Kuro replied. "They're currently recuperating. The guild house is being repaired."

"What happened to the guild house?" Ryuko asked.

"Gajeel destroyed it during his fight with Natsu," Kuro replied.

The room once again lapsed into silence and Ryuko was finding it rather hard to keep a conversation going. "Hey, do you want to make a team with me?" she finally asked.

"A team?" Kuro asked curiously. "What do you mean?"  
"A team that goes on jobs together and what not," Ryuko said. "I already asked Kaya and Hekai earlier, before we got to the guild. They accepted... I'd like to know if you want to join."

"Sure," Kuro said.

"We'll come up with a name later," Ryuko said.

"Yes," Kuro stated.

_**A few days later**_

"We are Team Dark Frost!" Hekai, Kaya and Ryuko shouted. Well, Kaya said it in a calmer tone than the others. Of course, Kuro just stared at them, refusing to take part in their enthusiastic shouting. They had gotten together at Ryuko's own shack in the woods, and officially formed the team.

The four of them walked back to the guild in silence, having already decided to take on a job together. They arrived at the guild house to see that a small stand had already been erected with the jobs.

"Hmm... this one looks good," Ryuko said, grabbing one randomly.

"You just picked that randomly," Hekai muttered.

"Leaving on a job?" Mirajane asked, walking up to them.

"Yes," Kaya replied.

Kuro simply waited in silence while the other three members of his team said goodbye to Mira. The four of them turned and started walking towards the train station.

"So what's the job, anyway?" Hekai asked. When Ryuko didn't respond fast enough, he snatched the paper out of her hands.

"It's at some place called Akane City..." Hekai muttered.

"Akane City... isn't that where the Akane Resort is located?" Kaya asked.

"Yeah, it's on an island," Ryuko replied. "Hey, Kaya, can you fly?"

"What kind of question is that?" Kaya asked.

"Well, it would speed things up if we all flew there, see?" Ryuko said happily.

Hekai shook his head at his companions and continued reading the job flier. _Defend the town from a sea monster? _He thought. _Why do I get the feeling that all the jobs we're going to take are going to involve fighting in some way or another? _Hekai sighed and looked down at the reward. _Hmm, 200,000 jewel, not bad. _

Hekai sprouted wings from his shoulders and flew onto the top of Ryuko's head. However, Ryuko was too concentrated on talking with Kaya to notice him.

"Then I'll teach you to fly!" Ryuko said happily.

"Idiot, you can't do that," Kaya replied. "One Dragon Slayer can't teach another his or her moves."

"But we're both Dragon Slayers!" Ryuko protested. "Shouldn't that count for something?"

"Can an ice elemental user teach a water elemental user attacks?"

"No, but..."

"It's the same thing!"

"But..." The pair continued arguing all the way to the train.

A/N Like it? Love it? Review it!


	17. The Tower of Heaven

"So how are we gonna find this sea monster anyway?" Ryuko asked. Team Dark Frost were all on a boat heading out to Akane City.

"You only just thought of that?" Kaya asked, in a calm tone, although it had an edge of irritation. "Why are you so clueless?"

"Because it annoys you!" Ryuko said happily. Hekai managed to hide a snicker behind his paw. He thought that it was highly amusing that Ryuko was only acting stupid because it annoyed Kaya.

"If you have the time to annoy me, why don't you use it to think about how we're going to find the monster?" Kaya suggested in a reasonable tone.

Ryuko thought for a moment. Then she grinned happily. "I know!"

"Yes?" Kaya asked. Perhaps the idiot known as Ryuko might actually come up with something good. Hekai once again had to hide his smile. There was no way Ryuko would actually come up with a good plan when she was deliberately trying to annoy Kaya, like right now.

"We wait for it to attack, then beat it up!" Ryuko said.

"You idiot," Kaya said. "I refuse to talk to idiots like you."

"Awww..." Ryuko whined. "But..." she looked at Kaya with puppy eyes.

_How does that even work anyway? She's 20! _Hekai wondered.

"It's a good plan!" Ryuko finished.

Hekai mentally facepawed. _You've gotta come up with something better than that... seriously. _He thought.

Kuro stared at the two Dragon Slayers then just shook his head. They had done something similar all the way to the port town and he doubted they were going to stop now. He might as well just ignore them.

_**An hour later**_

"We're here," Kuro said, breaking into yet another argument. Kuro was getting quite sick of their arguing, though he was grateful they weren't physical about it like Natsu and Gray were.

"Yay! We're here!" Ryuko said happily. Kaya said nothing; she simply began to get ready to disembark as the boat neared the island city.

After disembarking, they decided to stay in the Akane Resort Hotel. They all had excess money to spend and they could use a break, anyway. After relaxing for a day they'd go monster hunting.

Team Dark Frost went to their rooms for a bit to change and then they headed downstairs. Ryuko had changed into a black dress with a high neck. The skirts whispered against the floor as she walked and it was covered with intricate dark blue embroidery. Hekai was, of course, sitting on top of her head.

Kuro had simply left his broadsword up in his room. He also had redone his hair so it looked even more like a shaggy mane than before. Kaya was wearing light blue pants and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. She was also wearing high heels that looked like they were made out of ice. Her hairclips were, of course, in her hair.

The quartet headed downstairs and bumped into Team Natsu. "What are you guys doing here?" Ryuko asked Erza.

"We got tickets from Loke after the truth about him behind a celestial spirit was uncovered," Erza said. In the background Gray and Natsu was once again arguing. Lucy was watching them wondering if she could break them up and Happy had wandered off somewhere.

"He's a celestial spirit?!" Ryuko exclaimed. The four mages had set off on their journey before Loke had revealed his past.

"Yeah," Lucy said, having finally decided just to ignore Natsu and Gray. Erza, however, didn't.

"Stop fighting!" Erza yelled, turning around and smacking the unfortunate wizards' heads together. The red-haired mage stood above them, a demonic glint in her eye. She looked no less scary when she was wearing a dress. Hekai was covering his snicker with his paw.

"We... weren't arguing, r-right Natsu?" Gray mumbled.

"Aye! We were... just having a friendly quarrel!" Natsu said desperately.

"And here comes Happy #2," Lucy muttered.

"Well, even friends must argue sometimes," Erza said. She turned back around to face Ryuko. "Anyway, why are you here?"

"We came here for a job," Kaya said. "We are supposed to defeat a sea monster... we decided to visit Akane Resort while we were in town since we had enough money."

"I see..." Then Erza grinned and held up a hand curled into a fist. "Then we must have fun!"

"is she always like this?" Hekai asked Ryuko quietly.

"Pretty much, yeah," Ryuko muttered back.

The group of Fairy Tail wizards headed down to the ground floor of the resort. After a few minutes the group spread out, each of them doing different things.

Ryuko and Kaya diverged from the group first. Hekai jumped down from Ryuko's head when he saw what she was planning and he went over to talk to Happy.

The two Dragon Slayers stared at each other for a moment, before beginning to talk. "Seriously, I think I can teach you how to fly," Ryuko said.

"No you can't. I told you before; an elemental user of one element can't teach another elemental user of a different element. The elements are too far apart," Kaya replied in a calm tone.

"Can we just try it?" Ryuko asked. "It might work!"

"Fine," Kaya said after a pause. "So what do I do?"

"Well, first off, how do you use your magic?"

"What kind of question is that? I just imagine it being there and it is."

"Huh, that's very different than mine... okay just imagine that there are wings on your back."

Kaya stared at Ryuko for a moment, then reluctantly closed her eyes and started trying. Ice formed on her back, but that was about all. She opened her mouth to tell Ryuko "I told you so" when the lights of the resort suddenly turned off and Ryuko and Kaya were left bathed in complete blackness.

"What's going on?" Ryuko murmured. "Flight of the Dark Dragon." Her wings and tail appeared, though of course no one could see them.

Suddenly a scream wren the air. Erza's scream. "Erza's hurt!" Ryuko exclaimed. She ended the spell as it would be harder to fly in a dark room. The two Dragon Slayer ran along the wall. They knew that if they kept touching the wall, they would reach a door eventually.

Finally they reached a door and Ryuko yanked it open. It was still dark beyond but then the lights suddenly came on. Lucy was in the middle of the room tied up with some kind of rope. Around her were scattered cards that looked like playing cards. However, each one had the frantically moving image of a person.

Ryuko immediately ran over to Lucy and untied her. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Erza!" Lucy replied immediately. "They got her!"

"What about them?" Ryuko asked, pointing to the cards. "And who are 'they'?"

"This weir dguy turned the people in the casino into cards. The other guys who came and captured Erza were other weird people... they treated Erza like an old friend but then they kidnapped her! I was helpless!"

"Calm down," Kaya said. "In any case, we need to regroup with the others. From what I know about Card Magic, these people should turn back into people soon."

The other two women nodded and the trio ran out of the room.

_**Some time later**_

The combined might of Team Natsu and Team Dark Frost headed towards the giant tower known as the Tower of Heaven. They had decided to chase after Erza and they would do anything to get her back. However, two of their members weren't looking so mighty...

Natsu was leaning over the boat, weakly retching and Kaya was doing her best to maintain a calm face and hide her churning stomach. At least she was able to partially hide it. If Ryuko had actually been on the boat she would have been just as queasy, and probably less adept at hiding it. Currently she was flying beside the boat.

"We're getting close," Ryuko said. The Tower was indeed looming closer and closer. They also saw that there were a lot of dead fish and other creatures in the water. Dead birds occasionally fell from the sky, too. "I'm going to head off to the Tower on my own... I might be able to stop them before they do whatever they're planning to do with Erza. Is there anyone else who wants to come with me?"

"I'll come," Hekai volunteered. Nobody else did. Hekai leaped into the air, his own wings appearing, and the two Fairy Tail mages shot off towards the Tower of Heaven.

Juvia activated a Water Dome and the remaining wizards moved towards the Tower inside a sphere of water, so that way they wouldn't be harmed by whatever was killing the birds and fish.

Meanwhile, Ryuko and Hekai flew rapidly towards the top of the Tower. They circled it, looking for an entrance, but couldn't find one. So, Ryuko did what all Fairy Tail mages would do in this circumstance; she created one. "Roar of the Dark Dragon!" she yelled, spitting black energy at the most vulnerable-looking part of the tower. The powerful attack blasted a hole in the tower and the two wizards shot through the hole... and straight into a net.

Ryuko had the prescence of mind to make her wings vanish. However she was still caught in the net and struggling only made her tangle herself up worse. After a bit of trying, Hekai was able to slash through the net that held him and he dropped to the floor. He quickly flew up to Ryuko and started doing the same for her.

However, before he could finish the door banged open and a tall man with blue hair walked in wearing a cruel smile. "It appears I have some hostages!" He laughed insanely and then raised his hand. Bolts of yellow magic shot towards Ryuko and Hekai, knocking them out.

_**Some time later**_

After breaking into the tower and reuniting with Erza, the remaining Fairy Tail wizards decided to split up, so that way they would be able to find Jellal more quickly. Natsu charged off looking for Happy. Gray remarked that was "typical" of the idiot and if Natsu had heard him it would have started another fight. After a bit of discussion, Kaya and Kuro decided to move off in another direction, trying to find Ryuko and Hekai, wherever they had gone. Lucy and Juvia moved off in yet another direction, taking a different set of stairs. They hoped that they might reach Jellal first and be the ones to defeat him. Sho had captured Erza in one of his cards and Gray immediately started after him, not buying Sho's line about "protecting" Erza.

Up at the top of the tower, Jellal smiled evilly. "And so the game begans," he said. "I have the Panther and the Dragon Princess prisoner... and six assassins on the loose!" Jellal laughed again, looking at a chess board with different pieces on it. He had dismissed Trinity Raven and the Sakura Trio a few minutes ago so they could began hunting their prey. Soon, he anticipated that the wizards who tried to resist him would fall...

_**Kuro and Kaya**_

Kuro and Kaya ran up the stairs, moving as fast as they could towards the top of the tower. Kuro's eyes widened as he sensed something and he grabbed Kaya, stopping her from moving forwards. A dagger flew in front of her nose.

"Oh, very good," a voice said. It appeared to come from around them. "I am Tania... can you beat me?"

_**Lucy and Juvia**_

Lucy and Juvia, taking a different route, also hurried towards the top of the tower. They soon came to a fork, and after hesitating for a moment, each one took a different route. Lucy ran along her route, which was a narrow corridor. She saw more stairs ahead. At that moment, rope lashed out from the stairs and Lucy barely dodged.

"Who's there?" she called boldly. A woman with red hair stepped down the stairs. She held an unsheathed broadsword in her hands and was dressed in plate mail. However, she had no helmet.

"I am Sanko," she said. "And I have been hired... to kill you!"

_**Juvia**_

Juvia ran along a different set of stairs, hoping that she would be able to find Gray. That's what she was really trying to do. As long as she was with Gray, she would be happy. _Oh Gray... _she thought, imagining a romantic picture of Gray holding her.

She absent-intendedly ran through an open doorway and found herself in a dark room. Muffled grunts came from one corner. In Juvia's mind, that was Gray calling out for her.

"Got it!" a voice said. "Now give me a sec and I'll get rid of yours." Juvia walked forwards towards the voices and saw Hekai who had evidently just slashed his way out of his bonds. Now he was working on Ryuko's, and Ryuko also had a gag in her mouth. Hekai slashed that and it fell off.

"Ugh!" was the first thing Ryuko said. "I am so sick of getting captured like this! Anyway, thanks, Hekai."

"No problem," Hekai replied, working on Ryuko's bonds. "Hey, Juvia, mind giving me a hand?"

Juvia blinked as yet another romantic fantasy was interrupted and nodded quickly. _Ugh! _She thought. _I just want to find Gray!_

_**Jellal**_

"And so the Thief fights the Ice Queen and the Dragon. At the same time, the Knight faces the Princess and the Panther and the Dragon Princess have been rescued... I wonder how this will end?" Jellal mused to himself while watching the chess board in front of him. He had been moving pieces around to simulate the battle going on beneath him.

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	18. Ice Princess

_**Before... **_

_ Kuro and Kaya ran up the stairs, moving as fast as they could towards the top of the tower. Kuro's eyes widened as he sensed something and he grabbed Kaya, stopping her from moving forwards. A dagger flew in front of her nose. _

_ "Oh, very good," a voice said. It appeared to come from around them. "I am Tania... can you beat me?"_

_**Now... **_

Kuro narrowed his eyes at the sound of the voice. He and Kaya instinctively went back-to-back, that way they wouldn't be surprised by a sneak attack. Several more daggers flew out of the shadows from both ends of the hall. Kuro remembered what Ryuko had told him about someone calling herself Tania and he dodged, keeping an eye on the dagger targeted at him. As he expected, it came back towards him.

"Slash of the Ice Dragon," Kaya said smoothly. A curved spear of ice came racing out of one of her fingers and slammed into the dagger, freezing it. She had apparently done the same thing to the dagger targeted at her.

"Oh, _very _good," Tania said mockingly. "Wind Dagger!" Kuro's eyes widened and he started to turn, trying to get Kaya out of the way before the blow struck. A nearly invisible attack made out of wind shot through the air and stabbed into Kaya's shoulder.

Kaya cried out and clutched her shoulder. A moment later ice spread out from her fingers, sealing the wound. "Don't worry about me," she said. "I can still fight."

Kuro nodded. He unsheathed his broadsword then said, "Let's get some light in here, shall we?" He raised it and black energy began to collect on the blade. Then he swung it and the energy detached from the blade, flying towards the stairs.

It collided with the stairs, throwing up a cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, it was evident that Kuro had cut right through the stairs. "Huh," Kuro said, looking at his blade. "Looks like this thing works better as a focus than I thought."

"Roar of the Ice Dragon," Kaya said. She opened her mouth and spat a vortex of ice shards in the other direction. The ice filled the corridor and more, obliterating the walls. When the attack stopped, the previously square-shaped corridor was now a much larger circular tunnel, with several other corridors branching off from it.

At the edge of the attack there was a large shield made out of daggers. The daggers dissipated to reveal a small girl with blond hair dressed in ragged clothes. She glared at them and then raised her hand. "Wind Dagger!" she shouted. The air around her hand shimmered and then another nearly invisible attack shot at them. Kuro and Kaya both dodged the original attack, but then the daggers spun around and shot towards them from behind while the girl was preparing another attack. Kuro dodged one of the ones targeting him, but the other sliced his side, making him grimace. At least it wasn't serious.

Meanwhile, Kaya had managed to freeze one and was frantically trying to dodge the other one as it spun around her, attacking and then flying away.

"Dagger Storm!" Tiana yelled. Kuro spun back around to see five different daggers speeding towards him. One was made out of wind, another out of fire, another out of stone, yet another out of wood, and the last one looked like it was made out of water. They spun around Kuro, trapping him in their spinning vortexes. They seemed to duplicate until there were hundreds of them, all attacking at once. Kuro cried out and the vortex disappeared to reveal Kuro's bloodied form. He collapsed to the ground, knowing that that attack would be enough to kill any normal person.

Meanwhile, Kaya had finally managed to trick the dagger following her into plunging into the wall. She turned to look at Kuro's fallen form. "No..." she whispered. Then she spun around and glared at Tiana. "Fangs of the Ice Dragon!" Icicles formed on each of her wrist and she lunged forwards slashing at Tiana.

Tiana blocked the first slash with a dagger that appeared out of nowhere and dodged the second. Meanwhile, a dagger appeared in her other hand and she tried to stab Kaya in the stomach.

The Dragon Slayer leaped backwards just in time, receiving yet another nick. She glared at Tiana, panting for breath. _I'm too weak, _she thought. She glanced at the fallen form of Kuro yet again. _I need to save him! If only I had some ice... then I could do it! _Then Kaya realized that Tiana could probably make daggers of any element... if she attacked with an ice dagger than Kaya might be able to win. However, it would be extremely risky. Kaya had never used this particular move before and didn't know if she could control it.

"Roar of the Ice Dragon." Another vortex of ice shot out of Kaya's mouth. Tiana blocked with another dagger shield.

"Dagger Storm!" Tiana yelled, creating more daggers of different elements. The elements used were: fire, sand, earth, water and ice! Kaya saw the ice dagger and hoped that she could get to it and eat it before the attack actually hit.

Tiana lashed out with her hand and the daggers shot towards Kaya. _Can't let them surround me, _Kaya thought. "Quick Slash of the Ice Dragon." The pieces of ice that shot out from her fingertips froze the sand dagger. The remaining ones continued to attack Kaya.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to the Dragon Slayer. She flattened herself against a wall of the corridor and waited for the daggers. Hopefully this would work and not end in her death. The four daggers shot towards her, edges gleaming and ready to kill. Kaya threw herself out of the way at the last possible second and the four daggers slammed into the wall and got temporarily stuck. They wiggled furiously to free themselves.

Kaya grabbed the ice dagger and held onto it firmly, ignoring its attempts to get free. She bit off the hilt and ate it. She turned towards Tiana, her eyes almost glowing with power. "**Dragon Force**," she said in a voice like thunder. One advantage of being an Ice Dragon Slayer was that Dragon Force was easier to achieve and needed less practice to gain. However, it started out weaker and if the caster wasn't strong enough yet, there was a chance they wouldn't be able to control what they did in there Dragon Force form.

Tiana took a step backwards as a chilling cold aura shot outwards from Kaya. Unfortunately for the assassin, she had put enough power into the dagger that it provided the boost needed to go into Dragon Force mode.

Scales shot on to Kaya's face and her canines lengthened. She opened her mouth and breathed out, creating a cloud of mist. Ice shards danced around her feet, some of them smaller than a pebble, others larger than her fist. Kaya looked up, her eyes completely pale blue without pupils or whites. No hint of humanity remained in them, as if Kaya had been turned into some kind of humanoid beast. She walked forwards a few steps and there was a noticeable change in her gait. It was almost like she was now stalking her prey, and that prey was Tiana.

At that moment the swirling ice shards coalesced into a powerful-looking pale blue dragon. It was built somewhat like a snake and had no legs. Wings that looked like ice extended from its shoulders. The creature's mouth was open, a dark blue tongue darting out and tasting the air. The dragon raised its head and roared a scream that made terror run up Tiana's spine. Then, Kaya leaped forwards with inhuman speed back into the fight.

Nearby on the floor, Kuro looked at Kaya in surprise. He couldn't really see much, due to the fact he had to fake being knocked out, but he could see the immense likeness of Icyra behind her. _That's impressive, _he thought. _To have gained it so early on... although it is highly likely that she has not gained any true mastery of it. _

"**Roar of the Ice Dragon**," Kaya said in an thundering voice. She opened her mouth and spat a deadly attack at Tiana. It moved much faster, giving Tiana no time to dodge.

"Dagger-" Tiana was cut off as the attack slammed into her, throwing her down the corridor. Kaya stared at her then growled ferally.

"**Slash of the Ice Dragon**," she snarled. An arc of ice flew out from one of her hands, crashing into the downed Tiana. Kaya stalked over to where the assassin lay, the dragon apparition following her. Kaya growled and picked up the body of her fallen enemy by the throat.

Tiana clawed at the icy hands around her throat, her eyes wide with fear. With a roar, Kaya threw Tiana into the wall and then started punching her. Ice formed around her hands briefly before each hit made contact, increasing the power of the attack.

Kuro's eyes widened at this. _This is very bad, _he thought. _As I suspected, she doesn't have __control of it yet... right now she's lost control of the form and is just rampaging and will continue doing so unless I can stop her. _

Kaya turned from Tiana's body once she was satisfied that the assassin was dead. Her feral eyes caught the moving Kuro walking towards her and she growled. "**Roar of the Ice Dragon**," she snarled. Her jaws opened and an immense column of ice shards shot towards Kuro. When the attack ended, Kuro was in his dragon form with his wings around himself.

"Stop this!" Kuro growled. "I don't want to hurt you!" Kaya stared at him and blinked once. For a moment, the centers of her eyes darkened slightly as she fought for control of the form. She roared, throwing back her head and when she looked at Kuro, her eyes were wild and feral. The Ice Dragon Slayer growled at Kuro then pulled back her head and spat ice at Kuro.

The dragon leaped to the side, neatly dodging the attack before lunging at Kaya, trying to knock her out. Kaya lashed out with one hand and Kuro absently noted that it had claws and was definitely not a human hand before it smashed into his side.

Kuro twisted around midair and managed to land on his feet. "You just aren't making this easy, are you?" he growled. Kuro shot back towards Kaya and engaged her in hand-to-hand combat. _Such power... _he thought admiringly. _She will be extremely strong when she can actually control this form. _

Kuro leaped backwards and then spat dark energy at Kaya. The rampaging Dragon Slayer responded with a vortex of her own and the two energies fought each other for a moment before Kuro's broke through.

Kaya leaped to the side nimbly and sent two jagged pieces of ice at Kuro. She landed in a crouched position and started preparing another attack while the black dragon blocked her previous assault with his wings. _I've got no choice, _Kuro thought. _I have to use enough power to knock her out! _

Kuro raised his hands to his side and black energy began to collect in his palms. He brought his head back and opened his mouth. Dark energy began to collect there as well. "Triple Blast of the Apocalypse!" Kuro roared firing three beams made out of pure destruction at Kaya. The Ice Dragon Slayer dodged the first two easily, her slim form dancing out of the way of the beams. However, as she moved out of the way of the second she ran into the path of the third. The powerful blast slammed into her body, hurling her through the wall and sending her limp form plummeting towards the ocean. As she fell, her claws and scales disappeared and her appearance reverted back to normal.

Kuro leaped through the immense hole in the wall after her. He grabbed her right before her limp form would have crashed into the ocean. Kuro hovered there for a moment before heading back up to the hole he had made.

As he flew, he noticed that there were another two giant holes directly to the right and left of the one he had come through. The tower was weaker than it seemed. He landed lightly on the ground inside the corridor and, after a moment, decided to leave Kaya there. She had probably blacked out and would assume that she had won the fight. In any case, she was useless to him at the moment.

Kuro returned to his regular form and started heading upwards, towards where Jellal was. If he got there first, he would be able to save his fellow mages the trouble of killing the blue-haired mage.

_**Jellal**_

Jellal grinned as he knocked two pieces over on his chess board. One of them was shaped like an elegant dagger, and the other was a light blue dragon's head. "And so the Ice Queen and the Thief fall by the Dragon's hand..." he murmured.

_**Lucy**_

"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" Lucy yelled, waving the golden gate key in the air. Taurus appeared. He looked like a humanoid cow. He was predominately white, with black splotches.

"You called, Lucy~?" Taurus asked, with hearts in his eyes. "I will protect your perfect body~!"

"Never mind me, get her!" Lucy commanded, pointing at the broadsword-wielding woman.

"Yes, Lucy~!" Taurus shouted. He leaped into the air, brandishing a large ax before slashing out at Sanko with it.

"Hokaku!" Sanko swung her broadsword at the approaching ax Three ropes shot out of the edge. One of them wrapped itself around the handle of the ax, and one of them around the blade. The third rope shot through both ties and then made a tie, effectively connecting the ax and the broadsword.

Sanko leaped backwards and then swung her broadsword, pulling on the ax Taurus mooed in surprise but held onto the ax, causing him to crash into the wall. Sanko let the ropes dissipate and she walked towards Lucy.

"O-open Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" Lucy yelled, rapidly slashing in the air with a different golden key.

"Yuwaeru!" Sanko yelled. Rope shot out of the tip of her broadsword and bound Lucy, causing her to drop the key, canceling the summon. "Not even worth killing," Sanko said contemptuously. She struck Lucy on the forehead with her broadsword, knocking her out, then went in search of more prey.

_**Magic Council**_

"Our only option is to fire Etherion!" Siegrain argued. So far he only had five votes. He needed two more in order to fire the great cannon. "It is the only way to get rid of the R-System once and for all!"

"I will vote for this," another member said at last. Mutterings spread throughout the rest of the council.

_One more! _Siegrain thought gleefully. _Just one more!_

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	19. Darkness Within

After Juvia finished freeing Ryuko from her bonds, the three mages began to talk about what to do next. "I think Juvia and I should go on together, and Hekai should go try to find Jellal," Ryuko said.

"Why me?" Hekai asked. "I'm probably the weakest." The cat hated to admit it, but it was probably true. He didn't know how strong Juvia was, but she _looked _strong, and, besides, he didn't use magic. Well, he did, but it wasn't true magic; he just got big and slashed at his opponents with his claws.

"Yes, but you're small, so enemies won't be able to see you as easily... once you find Jellal, you could come find us and bring us to where he is," Ryuko replied.

Hekai shrugged. "Okay," he said. He supposed being small could be an advantage sometimes. The group split up, with Hekai flying off one way and Juvia and Ryuko moving off in a different direction.

_I just want to find Gray! _Juvia moaned mentally, wishing that she didn't have to be stuck with Ryuko.

Ryuko walked briskly down the corridor in the opposite direction, unaware of Juvia's mental turmoil. They went up another flight of stairs and then continued navigating the maze known as the Tower of Heaven.

Before long, they came to an apparent dead end. Juvia was ready to turn back, but Ryuko walked forwards and punched the wall. The stone splintered and shattered, leaving a jagged human-sized hole. "Come on," Ryuko said, stepping into the corridor beyond. They hadn't seen any other corridors attaching to the one she had been in and she didn't want to lose time by going back and retracing her steps.

"Why hello there!" a voice yelled. A man strode towards Ryuko and Juvia almost as soon as they stepped through the hole. The most horrendous guitar music the Dragon Slayer had ever heard blasted her ears.

Juvia, however, seemed to enjoy it, making Ryuko wonder just what kind of music she liked. Turning her attention back to the approaching man, she saw that he had very pale skin and long, black hair. He was carrying a guitar and wore spiked shoulder guards.

Juvia realized that this man was probably an enemy. She decided to ignore the music and attack. "Water Lock!" she yelled, making the first move. A sphere of water formed and shot towards the man, encasing him in it.

"That was easier than I expected," Ryuko said. "Well, shall we move on?"

"Not yet! I will drag you down to hell!" a voice yelled from within the water bubble. Ryuko spun back around to see that the water had been absorbed by the man's hair, which was now waving around wildly like an octopus. "I am Vidaldus Taka and I have been hired to kill you!" He grinned, sticking out his tongue. "And that attack won't work on me... my hair has the power to absorb any liquid!"

"Oh yeah?" Ryuko said. "Then take this!" She leaped towards Vivaldus, her fist pulled back. "Fist of the Dark Dragon!" She lashed out with her fist, but Vivaldus made a shield with his hair and blocked the attack. Ryuko leaped backwards, barely dodging another lock of hair that had tried to attack her.

"This is gonna be harder than I thought..." she muttered. "Roar of the Dark Dragon!" She pulled back her head and spat a vortex of dark energy at Vivaldus. The pale man dodged and glared at Ryuko.

"Now, that wasn't very nice! I don't like how this fight is going!" he said. One eye was open wider than the other, giving him a somewhat lopsided look. "I don't like it at all!" he added, continuing to wiggle his tongue in the air.

"You think I care?" Ryuko asked rhetorically. "Claw of the Dark Dragon!" She sent an arc of energy towards Vivaldus out of one of her fingertips. The man dodged.

"Water Slicer!" Juvia yelled, throwing projectiles of water at the man. His hair blocked and absorbed the attack.

"I told you before!" Vivaldus shouted at her. "That's useless! My hair can absorb any liquid!"

"Don't think that will make Juvia stop trying!" Juvia retorted.

Vivaldus laughed then grinned, waving his tongue in the air. "I think I'm gonna make this a bit more interesting... hmm... Juvia, become my succubus! Rock of Succubus!" Vivaldus struck a chord on his guitar and suddenly energy shot out of it, pouring into her.

Ryuko backed away a bit as Juvia started to scream. Ryuko leaped towards Vivaldus again, hoping that she could stop the spell if she could just hit the guitarist. "Fist of the Dark Dragon!"

Vivaldus dodged again and Ryuko's attack slammed into the ground. At this point, the spell was nearly complete, and Ryuko knew that she had to stop whatever was happening to Juvia. "Claws of the Dark Dragon!" she growled, pulling back her hand and sending five arcs of dark energy at Vivaldus. The guitarist dodged them all easily before lashing out at her with his hair.

Ryuko barely dodged the attacks and leaped backwards, panting. _There's no time! _She thought desperately. "Roar of the Dark Dragon!" she yelled, spitting a murky vortex at Vivaldus. He dodged it again. Ryuko gasped for breath; she was using a lot of magic power up all at once and it was extremely tiring.

"Meet my succubus of the day!" Vivaldus said proudly, pointing to a transformed Juvia. This new Juvia wore a revealing shirt and her blue hair was much longer. She had on black lipstick and grinned at Ryuko viciously. "Now attack her, Juvia!" Vivaldus commanded. "I want to see a catfight!"

Ryuko glared at him before dodging Juvia's attack. She landed on the ground, panting. How could she stop Juvia? She had to knock the other woman out somehow, but Juvia's water body would make that very hard.

"Roar of the Dark Dragon!" she yelled, looking like she was going to attack Juvia. At the last second Ryuko turned her head and sent the blast flying towards Vivaldus. However, Juvia leaped in the way and took the blow.

The succubus went flying backwards from the heap of the blow and Viladus grinned at Ryuko, waving his tonge in the air wildly. "That won't work!" he said happily.

"Water Slicer!" Juvia yelled, hurling water at Ryuko. The Dragon Slayer leaped to the side and managed to dodge most of the projectiles. The last few, however, hit her in the stomach, throwing her across the room.

Ryuko's eyes bulged out at the impact and she crashed into the wall. "If you think that'll make me give up, then you're mistaken!" Ryuko growled, getting up slowly. _I think I sprained my ankle in that impact, _she thought. It hurt to put weight on the limb. _It's gonna be hard to fight with this. _

"Punch of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko growled, running awkwardly across the floor towards Vivaldus. Ryuko's fist became enveloped in her magic and she tried to punch Vivaldus' face. The guitarist's hair suddenly shot towards her. One lock blocked the attack while another one grabbed her around her waist and threw her towards Juvia.

"Flight of the Dark Dragon!" Ryuko shouted. Her wings and tail formed and Ryuko flapped her wings desperately, slowing her momentum.

Ryuko spun around in the air and waited for Juvia's next attack. She knew that she couldn't take her eyes off the water mage, and at this point she figured Vivaldus wouldn't interfere.

Juvia leaped towards Ryuko, her fist covered in water. Ryuko saw it was coming too fast for her to dodge, so she did the only thing she could. "Protective Embrace of the Dark Dragon," she growled. A second set of wings came out of her shoulders and wrapped themselves in front of her.

Juvia's punch hit and threw Ryuko back. Juvia tilted her head to the side and grinned, licking her lips like a predator.

Ryuko's protective wings disappeared, revealing that, although the attack had had enough force to push her back, her wings had stopped any real damage from being dealt. However, she was getting tired. She had to end this fight quickly. "Claws of the Dark Dragon!" she yelled, pulling back both her hands. She sent a set of widely spaced claws at Juvia and the other set at Vivaldus.

Ryuko collapsed, unable to stay standing due to the fact that she had used up all of her energy. She saw that two of her attacks hit Juvia. However, the energy only went through her, unable to harm her because of her elemental body. One hit Vivaldus, despite his attempts to shield himself with his hair. He was left with a cut in his chest which was shallower than it looked.

"Go, finish her off, Juvia!" Vivaldus commanded, laughing. Juvia walked forwards, that awful grin on her lips and her body changed into its liquid state. It surrounded Ryuko.

_No... can't breathe! _Ryuko thought. However, at this point she was incapable of getting out of the water. _No! I can't... can't... die here! Not... now... _Ryuko's thoughts faded as the world turned to blackness.

_**Jellal**_

Our favorite blue-haired mage looked over his chessboard, nodding to himself. "And the Dragon Princess and Rain Woman fall..." he murmured, knocking over an elaborately shaped raindrop and a small figurine of a black dragon's head.

_**Ryuko**_

Ryuko floated on an endless sea of darkness, unable to move a single limb. **'I thought you were stronger than that,' **a voice said, booming out of nowhere. It carried an incredible sense of power. Ryuko thought that it would have made the ground shake, if there had been a ground in this place.

**'Was I wrong?' **the voice continued. Ryuko closed her eyes and tried to ignore it. She felt this overwhelming longing to just go to sleep... she didn't want to continue.

**'Awaken!' **the voice commanded.

_Just let me be, _Ryuko thought.

**'I can't do that,' **the voice said. Ryuko thought it sounded somewhat tender, almost as if it cared about her. **'It is not your time yet.' **

Ryuko opened her eyes and once again gazed at the blackness surrounding her.

**'Better.'**

Ryuko tried to speak, but couldn't. She didn't have a mouth in this strange place. So, she thought instead. _Who are you? _She thought. Ryuko tried to project the thought, to make it known to this strange being.

**'There is no need for that,' **the creature said. **'As for who I am, I am your instincts... your savageness... every part of you that you fear and hate and try to keep hidden.'**

There was a momentary pause in which Ryuko tried to digest what the strange creature was saying to her. After a moment, she came to the only conclusion possible given the circumstances. _I'm insane... _she thought. _Well, it's good to finally know..._

**'You are not insane,' **the creature said. **'Come.' **Ryuko felt a strange tugging and then she was suddenly moving, though how she could tell when she didn't have a body was unknown.

Suddenly, it felt like Ryuko broke through a barrier. She was out of the darkness and was instead inside a cave. A small creature sat in front of her. He was clearly a dragon. He had deep black scales that almost sucked in the light. Intelligent red eyes shone like coals in his face. He had no spines or horns. A pair of leathery wings were neatly folded at his sides. His body was a bit like that of a cat's. The tail was like that of a snake, with a vicious barb on th end. The creature came up to about her knee.

**'Yes, it is I who have been speaking to you,' **the dragon said. **'There is no time for me to explain who I am... I am already running out of strength just from talking to you. Know this, there are barriers in your mind that you have not yet broken. The only thing that is letting me talk to you is your near death experience.'**

"Who... who are you?" Ryuko asked, her mouth somewhat dry.

The dragon smiled, revealing sharp teeth. **'I am Draconis. Now **_**awaken!**_**'**

Ryuko felt herself getting pulled out of the cave. Her eyes popped open and she was in a different room. Her vision was tinted by water and once again she felt the need to breath. Power suddenly swelled up in her and Ryuko instinctively used it. Waves of dark energy came out of Ryuko's body and destroyed the sphere of water. Juvia reformed slowly, but just lay where she was. Ryuko's act of repelling her had probably drained her as well.

Black energy flared around Ryuko. Her eyes turned pure white. If anyone had cared to look, they would have noticed two minuscule horns nestling among her hair. **"Know the anger of a dragon, Vivaldus," **Ryuko said, her voice as powerful as Draconis'. Vilaldus trembled slightly at the power that Ryuko was giving off.

**"Wrath of the Dark Dragon!" **Ryuko cried. She raised one of her hands. The writhin energy that surrounded her shot towards her arm, entering it. Her skin glowed black briefly before the energy came out at her hand and started to grow into an orb. Within moments, it was finished charging and shot forth from Ryuko's hand to slam into her opponent.

Vivaldus blocked that with his hair and managed to stop it, though he was driven back from the force of the impact. "Is that all you've got?" he sneered.

**"That was not the attack," **Ryuko said. **"This is the attack." **Vivaldus' eyes widened in terror as he saw Ryuko. She had her mouth open and her eyes closed. Dark energy was collecting in her mouth, spinning into an orb rather like the one from the first attack. Ryuko brought her head forwards and a giant beam of energy shot from the orb.

Vivaldus had nowhere to go, for the beam was so massive that it covered all his exits. So he did the only thing he could. He covered himself with his hair and hoped for the best. The beam slammed through his shields easily and hit his body, pounding him against the wall.

Once the attack stopped, Ryuko could see that her attack had pushed Vivaldus through several walls and out into open air. He was now headed for the ocean. Ryuko felt the power leave her body and she collapsed, her horns disappearing and her eyes turning back to their normal color.

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	20. Rope and Fire, Stars and Soul

_**Lucy**_

Lucy ran along an entirely different corridor, hoping that Juvia would be okay. Lucy moved up another stairwell and then rounded a turn. She paused suddenly, sniffing the air. Was that... roses? Yes, it was definitely roses. But what would a scent of roses be doing here?

Lucy leaped backwards as an object slammed into the ground in front of her. It looked like a red fan, but the spines were elongated past the fabric and they looked deadly sharp. They also shone faintly green, as if they were poisoned. The stem of the fan, where it would be held, had a bar attached to the end. The bar was long enough so that way someone could hold it by the bar. A chain extended from the middle of the bar towards a flight of stairs up ahead.

The fan was suddenly pulled back, vanishing in a blur of movement. Lucy heard clapping coming from the stairs. "Oh, very good," a silky voice said. A pink-haired woman walked into view. She was incredibly beautiful, with creamy skin and cat-like black eyes. She held two fans, both like the one that had shot towards Lucy. The chains that Lucy had noticed earlier were attached to bracelets around her wrists.

"Very good indeed," the woman continued. She licked her lips savagely and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She tilted her head slightly, looking at Lucy through half-lowered eyelids. "Prepare yourself..." she hissed. "I am Sakura, head of the Sakura Trio!"

"Stop boasting!" Lucy yelled at Sakura. "If you're going to fight, then do so!" Lucy hated it when people would boast about how powerful they were before the fight. To her, it was the mark of a coward as you were trying to scare off your opponent before the battle even began.

"Oh... an impatient one, eh?" Sakura said. She chuckled. "Very well, come and meet your death, impatient fool!"

"Open, Gate of the Maiden!" Lucy yelled, slashing the air with one of her golden keys. "Virgo!" There was the sound of a doorbell and a woman with purple hair and blue eyes appeared. She was wearing a maid outfit.

"Time for punishment, hime?" Virgo asked, bowing to Lucy.

"NO!" Lucy yelled. Even though she really should be used to it by now, she still got irritated when Virgo insisted on asking her if it was time for her to be punished. The spirit should know by now that Lucy wasn't that kind of wizard! "Just fight her!" Lucy pointed at Sakura.

"Yes, Hime," Virgo said. She ran forwards, swinging her chains. Yellow beams of energy shot out of the ends, firing towards Sanko. The red-haired woman raised one fan and blocked the energy. She hurled the second one towards Virgo, causing the purple-haired spirit to dodge, stopping the attack.

"Not bad..." Sakura hissed. She pulled back her fan and held the two around her face. Her eyes could be seen gleaming over the edges. Lucy swung her whip at Sakura. The tip lashed through the air and around one of her fans.

Sakura cried out as her fan was ensnared. She slashed at the whip with her other fan, severing it. "You bad girl..." Sakura hissed. "You'll pay for that!" She crossed her arms across her chest, the fans in her hands completely covering her face. She closed her eyes behind the fans. "Mind..." she growled softly. Virgo started moving towards Sakura. "Tiger!" she finished, pulling her fans off of her face. A magic circle briefly formed over Lucy's head.

To Lucy's eyes, Sakura's form suddenly morphed into that of a snarling tiger. Saliva dripped off powerful fangs that looked as if they could rip apart flesh as easily as breathing. The tiger crouched and then lunged, leaping towards Lucy, claws extended. Virgo didn't seem to see the tiger and did nothing as it clawed at Lucy's face.

"Virgo!" Lucy yelled. "Help me!" However, the purple-haired spirit did not seem to hear, instead focusing on her battle with Sakura. Lucy felt a breath of wind across her skin and leaped backwards as the razor-edged spines of one of Sakura's fans raked across her chest. Thankfully, it only ripped her clothes. Lucy didn't want to think about what would happen if the poisoned spines had plunged into her flesh. However, she couldn't see Sakura. All she saw was a monster tiger which was slowly stalking forwards.

Lucy looked at Virgo again, Lucy saw that she abruptly leaped backwards and score marks appeared next to her. The tiger growled and leaped at Lucy again. Lucy dodged and slashed out with her whip. The black tendril connected, making the tiger growl in rage.

The beast backed up, tensing its legs to spring. Lucy glanced around at the still Virgo, facing an opponent she couldn't see and realized that either the tiger was an illusion only she could see or Virgo was the one being hypnotized.

After a moment Lucy concluded that Sakura having a take-over that had such a strange activation was less likely than her having some kind of mental powers. The tiger leaped towards Lucy and the blond focused every fiber of her being into denying the existence of the creature. "This isn't real!" she screamed as she felt the hot breath of the giant cat on her face.

Meanwhile, outside of Lucy's mind, Sakura waited at the edge of the fight, watching Virgo. Sadly, she couldn't hold illusions on multiple people, so she had to fight Virgo herself. "Your mistress is currently trapped in illusions," Sakura said silkily, obstructing her face with her fans.

"That may be so, but if I beat you, it won't matter!" Virgo said firmly. She leaped forwards and struck at Sakura with her chains. Sakura dodged the first attack and blocked the second with her right fan.

"Do you really think you can beat me, little girl?" Sakura asked softly. She lashed out with her left fan, forcing Virgo to leap backwards.

Virgo glared at Sakura, then vanished into the ground, digging a hole down to the next level. Sakura turned to follow, but was stopped short by the whip that had suddenly curled around her ankle. "Oh, you snapped out of it, little girl," Sakura said carelessly, referring to the illusions that she had attempted to trap Lucy with.

"The weakness to your power is awareness! I know that your illusions aren't real so I can't be trapped by them! Now I will stop you here!" Lucy said firmly. She snapped the whip, sending Sakura flying. The red-haired woman smashed through the wall, and out over open ocean. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise before she plummeted down towards the sea.

"Well, that worked out," Lucy muttered. Virgo popped back up behind Lucy.

"Time for punishment, Hime?" Virgo asked.

"No!" Lucy said. "Just... go back."

_**Natsu**_

After having been swallowed by the owl thing, and being saved by _Gray, _of all people, Natsu was running along a different corridor. He was quite unhappy and glared at the ceiling. Why did _Gray _have to be the one to save him? Why couldn't his savior have been Lucy or even Erza?! Was it really necessary for that idiot to have to be there? _Anyone _else would have been preferable! Oh the humiliation! He'd never be able to look his long-time rival in the eye again! This was horrible!

Natsu roared mindlessly in rage. Meanwhile, a rope shot along the edge of the corridor, moving quickly. It stayed by the side of the corridor, waiting for a chance to spring on its unaware prey. Natsu suddenly moved, stomping on the rope.

"Ha!" he said. "You didn't really think I wouldn't notice that, did you?! Now come out and fight me!" he roared, incinerating the rope and covering his body with flames. He looked downright demonic, complete with glowing red eyes.

"As you wish," a voice mused. A door opened an a woman stepped out. She had a giant broadsword swung carelessly over her back and was dressed in plate mail. She reminded Natsu of Erza, although Erza didn't keep her weapons on her person like this strange woman did. "So you are one of the people I've been hired to kill? Might as well get started, then." The woman sighed and unsheathed the broadsword, holding it in one hand. Natsu absentmindedly wondered how she was able to hold it with one hand. Then he shook his head and focused on the combat at hand.

"You're strong, right?" Natsu said eagerly.

"You could say that. I suppose I should tell you my name before we start. I am Sanko, swordsman of the Sakura Trio."

"I'm Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail!" Natsu yelled before leaping towards the woman, fist pulled back to strike. To his mind, he needed nothing else in order to start attacking. He had found another opponent to fight and that was all that mattered!

_**Sakura**_

"Stupid blondie," Sakura muttered, crawling out of the ocean. She sighed, and started climbing up the edge of the tower, having no other way to get back up. "I will find you and kill you!" Sakura snarled. She had torn off the remnants of her dress as it was soaked with sea water. Right now she was dressed in a set of leather armor that she'd had on underneath her dress.

Sakura crawled inside through a window and stood up, stretching her arms. Then she closed her eyes and tried to find Lucy using telepathy. Before long she found the blond, already heading up towards where Jellal waited. "I won't let you get there," Sakura muttered before heading towards Lucy.

_**Natsu**_

Natsu stood back, panting. A cut on his forearm dripped blood. The woman, Sanko, stood back, looking triumphant. She had no wounds whatsoever and had kept Natsu back easily. "Rope Doll!" she said, swinging her broadsword. Several different ropes shot out of it and started to form a giant wolf-like creature in front of her.

The wolf made out of rope cocked its head at Natsu. It was about to spring, but Natsu struck first. "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" he shouted, spitting fire at the wolf. Natsu heard a anguished howl, so he ran forwards through the smoke, thinking that the wolf had been destroyed.

However, he was thrown backwards by a slash of the wolf's paw. The head emerged from the smoke, looking singed but unharmed. Natsu narrowed his eyes at the wolf. Evidently this wasn't going to be an easy fight. In the background, he saw Sanko doing something. She was surrounded by coils of rope, probably preparing some kind of spell that would end the fight.

Natsu looked back at the wolf and narrowed his eyes. He wasn't about to be beaten by a dog made out of rope! "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" he yelled, bringing his hands up around his mouth. He spat fire through his hands at the wolf.

The rope construct turned its head away and leaped at Natsu through the flames. The Dragon Slayer stopped his attack, dodging a paw. The wolf was on fire, it's left side burning up. The left paw was also on fire, making it into a more lethal weapon against a normal person, but to Natsu it was nothing.

The thing snarled at Natsu, and leaped again, sightless eyes glaring at him. "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu said, punching the wolf in the side of its head. The powerful blow knocked the creature back, but it didn't seem to be that damaged.

The rope construct stalked a bit closer to Natsu, narrowing its eyes before baring its fangs and springing. Natsu barely dodged its swing. Its claw slashed his cheek, leaving a thin line of blood just under his eye.

The Dragon Slayer leaped backwards, hoping to get a little bit of distance between himself and his enemy. "Wing Slash of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu roared. Wings of fire seemed to come out of his shoulders, wrapping around his arms. Natsu leaped forwards and the fire slashed at the wolf.

After the smoke cleared, the Dragon Slayer saw that his opponent was currently laying in burnt bits on the ground. Sanko, however, appeared to be perfectly unharmed. The rope curled around her body, tightening on her arms and legs. It seemed to be forming a new shape around her. "You may have beaten my wolf," Sanko said with a triumphant grin, "But you cannot beat me! Rope Armor!"

_**Jellal**_

"So the fight between them has not yet concluded... sadly it appears nearly all of my assassins have been dealt with. Oh well," Jellal mused, regarding the chess board in front of him. "The Dragon is coming... I suppose I better go meet him." Jellal stood up with a sigh and headed to the roof of the tower.

He walked up into sunlight, and noted that the Magic Council would be firing Etherion very soon. _'The question is, will it be soon enough?' _He thought.

_**Kuro**_

Kuro shot up the side of the tower, his black form a blur as he moved upwards towards Jellal. His white eyes were narrowed as he regarded his prey. _'I don't know how strong he is,' _he thought. _'I'd better be careful.' _

Kuro stared up at the top of the tower. _'He's up there... I'm coming for you, Jellal!'_

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	21. Etherion

_**Natsu**_

The rope that had been swirling around Sanko started settling onto her body, making her form change. When the process was done, Sanko looked like an immense wolf-like creature, complete with glowing red eyes and sharp fangs. The rope that made up her body had fused together, making it look like she had actual fur.

Natsu watched the creature warily for a moment before charging forwards. "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!" he shouted, attempting to punch the wolf's head. The canine reared back, momentarily standing on her hind legs. Then she slashed down with one paw, slamming Natsu into the ground. **"Foolish," **Sanko said, her voice echoing strangely from inside the armor. **"You never had a chance of beating me!" **

"Shut up!" Natsu yelled back, getting up and wiping a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. He grinned, a demonic look coming into his eyes. "You haven't seen anything yet! Roar of the Fire Dragon!" The fiery vortex that shot out of Natsu's mouth slammed into the wolf's chest. The creature growled in anger as she was pushed back.

**"How dare you!" **Sanko roared. She slammed her paws onto the ground and cracks spread through the stone form the force of the blow. Moments later the floor shattered into pieces and the two combatants fell downwards. Natsu's breath attack twisted wildly and cut a rather impressive hole into a nearby wall before Natsu stopped putting power into it.

The fire mage regained his feet, standing up and looking around for his opponent. He leaped to the side as a paw slashed through the space where he'd just been. He glanced up to see the glowing red eyes of the monster wolf a moment before her head darted forwards. Natsu rolled to the right, Sanko's teeth slamming together right behind him.

Before Sanko could pull back, Natsu regained his feet and punched her head with a flame-enshrouded fist. The wolf's head was knocked back and she growled in anger. Part of her face was smoldering slightly, faint smoke rising from it. **"You'll pay for that!" **Sanko roared before slashing at Natsu. The Dragon Slayer dodged once more, backing up in preparation for another attack.

"Roar of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu shouted, sending another torrent of flame at Sanko. The wolf leaped to the side, fire smashing through the ground where she'd just been.

**"So impatient," **Sanko hissed while slashing at Natsu. The agile Dragon Slayer leaped out of the way before jumping up to attempt to slam another fire-enhanced punch into Sanko's cheek. The wolf jerked backwards, accidentally causing Natsu's fist to land on her nose.

Sanko howled in pain while Natsu jumped back. **"Why you little!" **Sanko roared in anger. She backed up, tensing her legs to spring, her eyes narrowing in furious anger. The immense wolf leaped towards Natsu, her paws landing on either side of him. The Dragon Slayer looked around for a way out and saw that he was surrounded. He glanced up at the rope belly and had an idea. Maybe this wolf would be more vulnerable on the belly...

Natsu rolled to the side, avoiding clashing teeth. "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" he shouted, spitting fire at the belly of the wolf. It was thrown upwards into the ceiling by the force of the attack. Natsu leaped to the side as the rope construct crashed down. The armor was severely blackened and actively burning in others.

**"You dare," **Sanko growled. **"Ha! You think you can stop all my rope? That's the beauty of it... it constantly repairs itself!" **Suddenly, the outer shell of the armor fell off, the blackened and burnt rope falling on the ground. Underneath was another layer which, while slightly burnt in places, was mostly intact.

Natsu glared at Sanko and tensed his legs, ready to leap back into the fight. "Sword Horn of the Fire Dragon!" he yelled, igniting his whole body on fire and lunging forwards at Sanko. The wolf reared back, startled by the suddenly flaming Natsu.

The Dragon Slayer slammed into Sanko's stomach, ripping through layers of rope. Seconds after impact, he collided with Sanko's true body, making her scream in pain. The two of them were hurled across the room and through several walls. When the force of the attack had finally spent itself, Natsu disentangled himself from Sanko and stepped back.

The rope mage lay in a heap, clearly unconscious. There was a large gash above her eye and blood ran down her face. The rope had all disappeared due to the fact that Sanko could no longer maintain the spell.

Natsu turned and stepped through the wreckage of the last wall he had smashed through. He was once again in a long corridor. Natsu shrugged and ran down it, once again heading towards Jellal.

_**Lucy**_

Lucy was racing along another corridor, heading towards the top of the tower. She was fairly certain that she was getting close. However she didn't know how much farther it would be and she briefly wondered if she actually wanted to be the first to Jellal, as he could probably beat her.

Suddenly the wall in front of her exploded inwards and a figure dressed in leather armor exploded through. After a moment, Lucy realized it was Sakura as she was holding her distinctive twin fans.

"Did you really think you got rid of me, girly?" Sakura asked, a sneer twisting her pretty face. "Fool! You can't beat me that easily... but you knew that, didn't you?"

"Why can't you leave us alone?!" Lucy shouted, breaking into Sakura's tirade. "Why can't you just leave and stop fighting us?!"

"Foolish girl," Sakura said, laughing softly. "We were _hired _for this job. Hired to make sure that none of you got out here alive. Don't worry, girly, you'll be dead before long."

"Oh really?" Lucy said. She pulled out the key of her strongest spirit. She didn't want to call on him so soon after the incident, but she knew she had no choice. Sakura was too powerful for her to do anything else.

At that moment, a fan sliced through the air, the side of it slamming into Lucy's wrist with a meaty thwak. Lucy yelped and dropped the golden key, unable to keep a hold of it.

"I'll be keeping that," Sakura said smugly, picking up the key. "A celestial spirit mage, hmm? That explains earlier. Ha! Not that it matters, girly! You'll die anyway!" Sakura leered at Lucy before starting to spin one of her fans by the chain.

'_I have to get that back!' _Lucy thought. She unhooked her whip from her belt with her other hand, the pain already starting to fade from the wrist that Sakura had hit. "For someone named after cherry blossoms, you certainly aren't very sweet," Lucy said, hoping that Sakura might slip up and make a mistake.

"Girly? Are you trying to _insult _me?" Sakura said in a highly amused tone. "Very fascinating, but your life is about to end."

"Then why don't you do it?" Lucy asked, giving her whip an experimental crack. "You seem to be all talk and no power."

Sakura glared at Lucy, irritation flashing behind her eyes. "Take this, girly," Sakura said, hurling the fan that she had been spinning by its chain at Lucy. The wizard's whip slashed out, wrapping around the fan's chain. Lucy tugged and hurled the surprised Sakura into the wall.

"Why you little maggot," Sakura hissed, emerging from the rubble. Lucy saw that she had unattached the chain from the bracelet around her wrist. "Mind Mist," she spat.

To Lucy, it looked like mist started to emerge from Sakura, swirling around her. Lucy shook her head furiously, trying to remember how she had broken through Sakura's illusions last time. '_This isn't real!' _She thought firmly. '_Remember what is real... Jellal is real! Erza's pain is real! This is but a puny substitute for reality!' _The mist vanished and a fan slashed straight at Lucy.

The blond leaped to the side, the fan smashing into the stone floor. It was almost immediately pulled back and Lucy could see Sakura circling around her, preparing to attack again.

"How do you do it, girly?" Sakura asked, tilting her head slightly. "You shatter my illusions so easily..."

"I know they aren't real," Lucy replied. "I know that my nakama's pain is real, that that is what I am fighting for." As Lucy said this, she edged towards Sakura. When she got close enough, she lashed out with the whip, slashing Sakura across the hand with the tip.

Sakura yelped and leaped backwards, dropping the golden key that Lucy could use to summon Loke. Lucy quickly grabbed it and edged backwards.

"You little bitch!" Sakura hissed, furious for having fallen for the same thing she had done to Lucy. "Well, it doesn't matter if you have your little key. I'll kill you anyway!"

"Open, Gate of the Lion!" Lucy shouted, slashing the air with the golden key. "Loke!" A golden magic circle appeared and then Loke himself showed up.

"You require my services?" he asked softly, sidling up to Lucy in a flirtatious matter.

Lucy rolled her eyes at Loke's flirting. He could be as bad as Taurus sometimes. "Why don't you focus on the battle at hand?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Ah, yes, of course," Loke said. He turned towards Sakura and his gaze hardened somewhat. "She is the one you are talking about, I presume?"

"Of course," Lucy said. "She is the one I am fighting, after all."

Loke nodded and raised his left arm in the air. "O Regulus!' he chanted. "Grant me your strength!" A golden aura surrounded him and when it faded, Loke leaped towards Sakura, a golden glow surrounding his hands.

Loke attempted to punch Sakura, only to meet the cloth surface of her fan. "That won't be so easy," Sakura hissed before driving a kick into his stomach.

The spirit gasped, breath knocked out of his lungs. Sakura brought down her fan, intending to finish him off. However, a whip flicked through the air at her, causing her to leap back. "Oh, still interfering?" Sakura snarled as Lucy advanced on her, whip darting through the air to give Loke time to recover.

"Move aside, Lucy," Loke said, stepping forwards with confidence. "Shishikoyo!" Light burst out of Loke's body, momentarily blinding Sakura. When her sight was restored, she saw an immense lion head made out of light barreling towards her.

Unable to dodge, Sakura was hit by the head and thrown through the wall and once more sent plummeting to the ocean.

"Is that all you require, Lucy?" Loke asked, walking forwards and bending to kiss Lucy's hand.

"Yes, um, go back?" Lucy asked tentatively, looking a bit creeped out by Loke's advances. Moments, later the spirit disappeared and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.

_**Kuro**_

Kuro shot above the tower, black wings snapping open to stop his momentum. Jellal was waiting for him, a smirk on his face. "Ah, very good," he said mockingly. "But you're too late. I already have the council's approval to fire Etherion!"

'_Etherion? What's that?' _Kuro thought. "What are you talking about?" Kuro snapped. "What is Etherion?"

Jellal laughed and pointed at the sky. "That," he said simply.

Erza burst through a different door and leveled a sword at him. She was wearing her regular armor and was carrying a rather plain sword. "There you are, Jellal!" she said.

Jellal moved forwards and lightly touched her shoulder. "Here I am," he said smugly. Kuro looked up at the sky and saw a point of brilliant light that was starting to form high up. It grew larger and larger and Kuro realized it was some sort of attack, coming straight towards the Tower.

"No..." he whispered. He had no idea if everyone had gotten out or not. He turned and screamed as loudly as he could. "Everyone get out of the Tower now! Get as far away from it as you can! If you stay you will die! RUN!"

"It's useless," Jellal said, smiling cruelly. "There's nothing you can do to stop it!" He spread his arms and laughed wildly. "You see, you and your pathetic friends are about to die!"

_**Elsewhere**_

All over the tower, the various members of Fairy Tail heard Kuro's shout. One by one, they turned around and started heading towards the base of the tower. Hekai found Ryuko and was able to carry both Ryuko and Juvia down to the base, although it was quite hard for him. Happy grabbed Natsu and the pair swooped down towards the ocean.

Lucy hesitated for a moment then decided, her brown eyes narrowing. She was going to die if she stayed here, that much was true. She opened a nearby window and looked out. Wind whipped at her hair and she almost stopped right then and there. However, Lucy smiled grimly and jumped out the window, wind whistling around her ears.

Gray was already at the bottom, waiting for everyone else. At Kuro's words, he ran outside the Tower of Heaven, down to the shore. Unable to do anything else, he waited for the rest of his nakama to come.

At the Council, Jellal's thought projection faded away. Ultear also disappear, but not before sabotaging the council room.

'_We are fools,' _Yajimo thought sadly, shaking his head. '_We fell for his trap... If his plan to resurrect Zeref succeeds... then we are doomed!'_

_**The Tower of Heaven**_

Etherion shot down from the sky almost like a comet, a blazing trail of light that struck the tower of heaven. Light flared throughout it and various members of Fairy Tail winced, expecting to die in the next instant.

Moments later, the light faded and the Tower had been transformed from stone and metal in crystal. It gleamed blue in the sunlight and Lucy realized that perhaps jumping out of that window had been really stupid after all. Luckily for her, Hekai's passengers saw her and Juvia created a Water Lock around her moments before she hit the ocean.

A few minutes later, Fairy Tail was reunited at the beach. Juvia started to take them away from the Tower, knowing that Kuro and Erza could fend for themselves. They would be fine. Probably. Besides, Kuro could fly so he would be able to take Erza away.

That was the plan, anyway.

_**Erza**_

Erza cried out as writhing snake chains covered her. "What have you done, Jellal?!" she snarled.

"What have I done?" Jellal asked softly. "Why, I am creating a new era, Erza." He smirked at the sword mage. "And there's nothing you, or your draconic friend, can do to stop it!"

Erza cried out again as she backed towards the crystal lacrima with quivering steps. "Help!" she screamed, unable to control her body while in the grip of Jellal's spell.

Without hesitation, Kuro leaped at Jellal, punching him in the stomach and interrupting his concentration. "Isn't there?" he said softly as Erza collapsed to the ground. "You see, you tried to hurt my nakama... and that is something I will never forgive!"

Jellal looked up at the looming figure and felt fear for the first time in a long while.

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	22. For my Nakama

_**Kuro**_

Kuro stared at the smirking Jellal, barely hiding his anger. How dare he? How dare this fly hurt those he considered his nakama? In the back of his mind he wondered when he started calling them nakama, but he dismissed it. "Time for you to die," he said softly. He raised a hand and black energy started coalescing in it out of his black palm.

"Meteor!" Jellal yelled. His body was surrounded by a faint yellow glow and he leaped out of the way just before the energy left Kuro's palm. The wizard;s robes flapped slightly with the force of the resulting explosion.

"I will destroy you!" Kuro roared, spitting a black vortex towards Jellal. Overhead, the white light grew brighter as the incoming attack came in closer.

Jellal laughed, cocking his head to the side and adopting a vicious grin. "You can try..." he hissed. He crossed his arms above his head and yellow light surrounded him, glowing as bright as the sun. Kuro attempted to shield his eyes from the brilliance and saw that Jellal was casting a spell of some kind.

"You think I'm going to let that happen?!" he snarled, leaping towards Jellal. His eyes burned with rage and he unleashed a vicious roar as he sprang.

"You don't need to," Jellal retorted, before screaming a spell name. "ALTARIS!" he roared, pointing his hands towards Kuro. The wizard saw an immense black ball that seemed to suck light itself into it leave Jellal's hands and then he screamed as he was thrown brutally backwards. The breath whistled out of his lungs as the powerful attack slammed into his stomach.

Kuro screamed as he was catapulted off the edge of the Tower. He fell downwards, his eyes closed, trying to force breath into his lungs. _'What was that? That power... if I had been in my normal form... no, best not to dwell on that. I still have a fight to attend to!' _Kuro opened his eyes and glared up at the top of the tower. He bared his teeth and roared, ignoring his bruised ribs. Immense black wings unfolded and Kuro shot back towards the top of the tower.

_'No... I'm too late!' _Kuro thought in panic. The white light was nearly there and everything shone with a brilliance that made Kuro squint. He felt the moment Etherion hit, felt it in his very bones. Everything shook, trembling with the force of the attack.

A few seconds later, the tower and the surrounding air was still again. Kuro opened his eyes and saw that the tower had been transformed from a patchwork of stone and wood into a glistening blue lacrima. _'The power was absorbed!' _He thought frantically. _'Erza is going to be sacrificed really really soon. I must get back up there!'_

Kuro ground his teeth together and launched himself back up the tower, shooting upwards.

_**Juvia**_

The bubble of water that Juvia had created bobbed on the ocean from the force of the blast. "No..." Kaya whispered. She didn't want to face it, but her mind forced her to accept the awful truth. Kuro and Erza had been in the tower when it was hit. They were probably dead now.

"No..." Kaya whispered again, staring at the brightly shining tower. Wait. Brightly shining... it wasn't destroyed. The light slowly faded and the inhabitants of the bubble could see that the tower had been transformed into an immense blue lacrima.

"That... that can't be good," Natsu said after a moment.

"Way to state the obvious, flamehead," Gray said almost reflexively. His mind was still focused on the tower and what had just happened. He just argued with Natsu as a reflex.

"What was that, ice block?" Natsu growled, sending a fierce glare at Gray.

"Shut up!" Lucy yelled at the both of them, finally cracking. She stood up in the bubble, her brown eyes blazing with rage. "Erza and Kuro may be dead and all you two can do is argue?!" she practically snarled.

"Lucy, they aren't dead," Kaya began calmly.

"Gray-sama..." Juvia muttered in the background. Nobody payed any attention to her.

"How can they be alive?" Lucy almost screamed, tears welling up in her eyes. "You saw the power of the cannon..."

"The tower absorbed the blast," Kaya pointed out. "I doubt they are harmed, despite being at the top."

Lucy turned on her, sending a furious glare her way. "How can you just sit there when two of our nakama may well be dead?" she spat.

Kaya gave Lucy a calm look. "Calm down, fool," she said. "Do you have no faith in them? They are both strong. They will be fine."

"But what if they aren't?" Lucy said, her voice cracking a bit on the last word. She swallowed and continued. "How can they not have been hurt by that blast? It hit the top, you all saw that!"

Lucy cut off abruptly as Natsu hugged her. Her eyes opened wide and she turned her head to stare at the Dragon Slayer in shock. "They'll be okay," Natsu said softly. "They're Fairy Tail wizards!" Natsu smiled weakly. "Besides, Erza's a demon!"

Natsu's weak joke seemed to lighten the mood somewhat. "All we can do is wait," Kaya said softly. "I am just as worried as you are... but there is nothing we can do about it."

Lucy nodded slowly and settled down, her eyes still on the tower.

"Oh why does Gray-sama never hug me like that?" Juvia whined. "Gray-sama! Give me a hug!"

"Wha-" was all Gray could say before being tackled by Juvia.

_**Kuro**_

Kuro shot back over the edge of the tower. Jellal turned around in surprise. He had just been about to sacrifice Erza. She was already halfway into the lacrima which was accepting her limp body.

"Stop it!" Kuro roared. He lunged forwards and punched the lacrima, spraying blue shards of the magic crystal everywhere. The crystal around Erza cracked and she fell out limply. Jellal glared at Kuro furiously.

"If you would stop interfering, I would finally be able to resurrect him!" Jellal roared, launching beams of light at Kuro from his palm. The black dragon dodged them all and returned a few blasts.

"Resurrect who?" Kuro growled. He had had no particular reason for defeating Jellal other than he had hurt Kuro's nakama. However, it appeared that there was another reason to stop him.

"The black wizard Zeref, of course," Jellal replied, sneering.

Time stopped for Kuro. _'What?' _Had he heard correctly? This Jellal was trying to resurrect _Zeref? _"Give it up," Kuro said shortly. "He's dead." His voice seemed to hide a hidden pain as he said this, as if the mere mention of the black wizard's name dredged up painful memories.

"Idiot," Jellal sneered. "He's not dead, just sealed!"

_Sealed... sealed... sealed... _the word kept reverberating in Kuro's mind. "Sealed?" he whispered to himself. _'What have I done?' _He thought desperately. _'All this time... He's going to be unleashed upon the world again soon! It is my duty to stop him...'_

"Yes, sealed, you imbecile!" Jellal snapped. More beams of golden light shot from his hands.

Kuro nimbly dodged most of them, but the last one struck him in the arm. The black dragon was thrown backwards and he snapped his wings open to stop his movement. _'There will be time to focus on that later,' _he thought grimly. _'For now, I must throw my body into the fight!' _

"I must admit, you are an interesting opponent," Kuro said coldly. He leaped forwards and slashed at Jellal with one clawed leg. The blue-haired wizard activated Meteor again and nimble dodged Kuro's attack.

Moments later, Jellal came around Kuro and hit him in the back with his feet. Jellal smirked victoriously as Kuro staggered forwards slightly. The blue-haired mage punched and kicked the dragon, not giving his opponent time to respond.

A black aura exploded off of Kuro, throwing off Jellal. _'This guy's strong,' _Kuro thought. His power roared around him, hiding his form. Within it, Kuro's white eyes burned with anger. _'I will kill you, no matter how strong you are!' _He thought.

Golden beams of light hurtled towards Kuro from above him. The dragon barely dodged and the light slammed into the blue lacrima, sending more shards around him. One of them grazed his cheek. Kuro stared upwards and then flexed his wings. Jellal was standing on a platform of golden light and smirking at him arrogantly.

The dragon leaped into the air, straight at Jellal. The surprised mage fired multiple balls of light at Kuro, which he easily dodged. Kuro was much more mobile in the air and was confident he could dodge whatever Jellal threw at him.

Kuro was surrounded by a black aura as he shot upwards and Jellal acted quickly by moving his platform, dodging the black dragon's attack. Kuro roared in rage, baring sharp teeth. Jellal barely dodged the vortex of black energy that shot out of the dragon's mouth moments later.

The blue-haired mage decided to use the full speed of his Meteor and shot off to Kuro's left, looping around him in dizzying spirals. Within moments, Kuro gave up on following Jellal with his eyes; all he could see was a blur anyways.

Relying on instinct more than thought, Kuro dove towards the ground, a yellow attack from Jellal cleaving the air where he had just been. _'That was close,' _Kuro thought. _'He's extremely strong. I can't afford to get hit again.' _

Glowing spheres shot towards Kuro and the black dragon dropped into a roll, dodging the majority of the orbs. The last of the glowing shower hit the side of Kuro's head, knocking the dragon backwards.

Kuro shook his head, trying to focus on the fight. He looked up, eyes wide as another barrage of spheres shot towards him. A desperate thought occurred to him and he blasted a dark vortex of power into the air. The force of the blast threw him backwards, out of the spheres' path. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing nerves. He could feel that he was using too much power, his body couldn't take much more. _'This next assault... must end it!' _

Nearby, Jellal also paused briefly. This fight was the hardest one he'd ever fought. Kuro was extremely powerful, the fact that he'd survived Jellal's Altaris was a testament to that fact. _'I'm gonna end this in one shot!' _he thought. _'I'm going to put all the power I have into this attack...'_

Kuro raised his left hand over his head and roared. His magic manifested itself physically in the form of a black aura as an immense magic circle appeared centered around his open hand. _"True darkness, I call upon thee!" _he begun. His voice began changing and warping to become something even more sinister. The aura now covered him from head to toe. The only part of him that could be seen was his upraised hand.

Jellal let out a similar cry, holding his hands in front of him. The light of the world was sucked towards his hands rapidly. A small black orb began growing in his palms, rapidly gaining side and mass. "Faster!" he cried out joyfully as his next attack built in power.

_"Hear my cry, and join me!" _Kuro continued. _"The dark rises... oh, shadows of the night! Lend me your strength!" _He screamed one last time, his magic roaring around him, rapidly covering his form. Even his hand was covered. Within moments he was nothing but a swirling wraith made of shadow. His body, if it could be called such, seemed to draw the light into it in much the same way that Jellal's orb was doing.

_**"DIE!" **_Jellal and Kuro both roared. Jellal staggered backwards as his black orb left his hands to shoot towards the wraith. The wraith hissed, almost, and then threw itself forwards.

An immense explosion rocked the Tower of Heaven itself. The sound waves caused ripples in the water below and nearby birds screeched as they were thrown away from the tower. Chips of lacrima were thrown through the air from the top where the explosion had originated. The Fairy Tail members down on the ocean winced and covered their ears.

And then it was over. A panting Kuro stood over an unconscious Jellal. He reached out and gripped a nearby stalagmite of lacrima for support. _'That took a lot more out of me than I thought it would... you were indeed a worthy opponent,' _he thought before collapsing, darkness stealing over his vision.

Erza opened her eyes. She got up and saw the unconscious forms of Kuro and Jellal near her. She took a step towards them and felt a shudder go through the Tower of Heaven. She froze, and then felt it shudder again. _'No!' _She thought. _'We won!' _

She put a hand on a nearby stalagmite and was shocked when her hand sank into the crystal. _'I guess it still accepts me as the sacrifice...' _she thought. The Tower shuddered once more, as if it was going to... explode. There was no way out... except maybe... "No..." Erza said softly. The she closed her eyes and said quietly. "I must do this..."

The scarlet-haired woman fell backwards into the blue lacrima, a peaceful smile on her face.

Kuro opened his eyes and realized he must have blacked out briefly. He looked to his left and his eyes widened in shock as he saw Erza halfway in the lacrima. "No!" he tried to shout. It came out as a soft croak. The Tower shuddered underneath him and he realized that she was sacrificing herself in order to save everyone. "No..." he said again softly.

Erza saw that he was awake and gave him a sad smile. "I can't imagine a world without my nakama..." she said softly. "If I were to die... to save everyone... then I would gladly sacrifice myself... Say goodbye to everyone for me..." With that, Erza completely fell into the lacrima, the blue liquid sliding over her face.

She fell farther and farther into into the depths, and the last thing she saw before her mind was blank was Kuro's worried face staring at her.

_**On the ocean**_

The Tower exploded. It imploded in on itself, all the magic that had been stored in it from Etherion lashed out at its surroundings. The ocean rippled from the blast, sending the bubble of water that Juvia had made bobbing up and down.

Kaya stared at the island, her face white. There was nothing there where there had been. The tower was gone, it's only remnants were the blue shards of lacrima that occasionally came raining down from above. "No..." she whispered softly.

"Erza!" Natsu cried out, staring at the remnants of the Tower. "Not again..." he cried out, tears starting to well up in his eyes. In his mind's eye, he could see Lisanna's funeral all over again, and couldn't help comparing it to this.

Juvia was shaken, her face pale. She didn't even notice that "her" Gray was hugging her just to have something to touch. She had only known Kuro for a short time but had grown to like him. Despite his rough exterior, she could see that he really did sincerely care. She couldn't believe that he was gone...

Happy was equally stunned, his eyes closed and tears streaming down his face. He couldn't believe that Erza was really gone... she had always been _there, _breaking up Natsu and Gray whenever they got into a fight, and generally keeping discipline among the guild members. Now that she was gone, what would they do?

Ryuko closed her eyes and swallowed weakly. _Kuro... _she thought. There was something about the man that made her instinctively like him. Even though she hadn't known him for that long, she felt the loss like the pain of an open wound. She couldn't bear the thought that she would never see him again.

Lucy put her head in her hands. She had never imagined that it could turn out like this. She had really thought that they would be able to get out... but now they were dead. It seemed only yesterday that she had joined Fairy Tail and now two of its members were dead and gone...

It was a somber group that headed back to the port town to carry their news back to Fairy Tail...


	23. Author's Note

Hey guys. I am sorry to say that the Dark Dragon Slayer is going on a hiatus, perhaps forever. I may, at some later date, find inspiration for this story and start posting again, but as of now I am having problems writing this. My muse has left me for the time being. If anyone is interested in adopting this, they can, I guess, if they want to. Frankly, I think it is unlikely that I will continue this story, so I suppose you can consider it dead.

So... yeah. Sorry to all those people out there who like my story,m but I just can't find it within me to continue writing this. Thank you for all your support and favorites and follows. They really mean a lot to me. Anyway, if someone does adopt this, I'll post the link in a new chapter.

Thank you to all of you for staying with me this far.

_~LoveDragonsForever _


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